Her Deadly Guardian
by BlueAbyssofShadows
Summary: Set after Plague. After Astrid left Sam, she was brokenhearted over the fact of losing her little brother. But as soon as she left to the woods, she found herself in the company of the deadly monster that she has feared throughout her entire time in the FAYZ, Drake. Ever since the Gaiaphage cast him out, he's been broken. Can Astrid tame his dark heart? Or will hatred consume them?
1. Chapter 1

**Drake's P.O.V**

I lay in my own pool of blood, right beside the cave entrance of my former master, the Gaiaphage. "It" had cast me out, declared me worthless after I failed to bring it back the Petard alive. The Gaiaphage had mentioned something about Petard being some sort of avatar and as more of a threat. But either way, he was still alive. I couldn't remember what happened after that, since I was thrown against the wall and forced out of the cave.

That bastard of a god..

Of all the things I did for him, he casts me out? Brittany Pig wasn't appearing anymore, and I guessed that the Gaiaphage killed her. The only good thing was that I was myself again.

I cough out a small amount of blood as it drips from my dry lips. I try and lift myself off the desert ground as the sun starts to go down off into the distance. It was getting colder. My body ached like hell, and for some reason I was bleeding internally.

"I don't need anyone," I bitterly decide to myself.

I'll kill everyone in this damned FAYZ, and rule it myself. I don't need some stupid god to help me.

I try and limp forwards as I stretch out my whip hand, making a loud crack as I whip it against the ground. I had one particular goal I needed to finish before the day ended. And believe me, I was going to accomplish it.

I was going to kill that bitch, Astrid.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V**

I wandered away from Perdido Beach, having no idea where I was going. Right now, I just wanted to be alone. My only intention was to get away from everyone, especially Sam.

I carried a small bag over my shoulder, which carried a few necessities, including a machete. I had no idea if I was going to use it or not, but I knew I had to carry at least one weapon with me if I was going to survive on my own.

I felt...empty.

For the first time in my life, I didn't feel like myself at all. I didn't care about solving solutions or figuring out scientific problems that only I would know. The only thing I wanted right now was my little brother. My sweet, innocent, little Petey.

I just wish everything was back to the way it was. When I lived with my parents and Petey was still alive.

I bite my lip, and desperately try to hold in my tears.

Sam didn't understand. I know he wanted to comfort me, but he'll never understand. He doesn't know what it's like to care for a younger sibling. Having that sibling look up to you, and love you. Even if Petey didn't show it, I know he did. He trusted me to take care of him, and I failed.

I slowly start to make my way towards the forest, which was close to the desert. I figured it would be the most reasonable place for me to go, since it provided shelter and shade.

As I enter, I'm instantly engulfed in darkness as the shade of the trees tower over me. I make my way through the trees, glancing at my surroundings to try and find a spot I could set camp.

When I find a spot between two sets of trees, I lay my bag down and sit down against the grass. I open the bag and search through my belongings to find several matches I brought with me to start a fire. Before I light the matches, I search for a few branches among the forest floor that have dropped off trees.

Once I'm satisfied with the amount of branches, I bring them back to my spot and set them on the ground next to me. I light a match on the branches and watch as the fire begins to grow.

I sigh and sit back against one of the trees as I stare at the bright fire. My mind flips back to the memories I had with Sam and the rest of our friends. I don't know whether or not if I was going to go back to Perdido Beach at this point. I decided I had to, but I would wait until the time was right.

My gaze averts to my long blonde hair, which was cascading down my cheek and falling to my waist. I debated about cutting it or not, since it got in the way most of the time. I reached into the bag and grabbed the machete, holding it in my hands. My mother had always loved my hair, that was the main reason why I didn't really want to cut it. In case I ever saw her again.

But I knew she would probably be more concerned over the fact I killed my younger brother.

I dropped the machete and began to silently sob. I cry out and lean against the ground, curling up into a ball. I hug my knees to my chest as my lip quivers. My crying becomes more louder, so I bury my face onto my knees to try and silence myself. Anyone could be out here. And I figured they would most likely be a threat.

"I'm so sorry, Petey..I'm sorry," I whisper, and try to wipe the tears from my face.

As I stop crying, I continue to lay on the floor, staring at particularly nothing. My eyes were probably red from crying so much, but the soft breeze in the air soothed it a bit. My breathing slowed as my body began to relax. My eyes slowly fluttered close as I started to silently fall asleep.

Crying had always made me sleepy.

Sleeping had always been easier for me since I always slept next to Sam. He had always held me and whispered sweet nothings into my ear. I missed him, really. I don't know why I distanced myself from him. I was just, so upset over Petey.

When I thought I was about to fall asleep, I suddenly heard a crack from a branch a several feet away.

I gasp and instantly open my eyes. I sit up and look around at my surroundings, which was hard, since darkness covered the entire forest. I guessed that it was probably night. The fire only dimmed my area, but the rest was covered in blackness.

I shiver and stare into the darkness, expecting a monster to pop out and devour me. Or worse, it could be Drake.

"Who's there..?" I silently call out, realizing my voice was laced with fear.

I feel my breathing getting heavier as I stand up and walk several steps back.

The crackling of branches stops, but now I hear movement among the trees and bushes. I feel my heart stop as the noise gets closer. I was going to die..

I was going to die, without ever seeing Sam again.

The noise stops and the creature jumps out from the bush.

As I glance closer at the animal, I discover that it's only a harmless rabbit.

I breathe a sigh of relief. My heavy sigh scares the rabbit, and it jumps away to safety. I slightly feel disappointment when I realize I could of caught it and ate it. I was starving. I silently curse myself and turn towards the fire.

"Hello, beautiful." A voice says from behind me.

Drake.

I freeze, recognizing that voice. But before I even have time to turn around, his whip is around my mouth, silencing me.

I scream bloody murder through his whip as I struggle against him.

"Shut up, you bitch." He hisses against my ear.

I try and kick and punch, but he merely chuckles. I'm probably not even hurting him. However, I don't know why, but I could almost hear pain laced with his chuckle. My eyes widen as I realize he's hurt.

He throws me against the ground and cracks his whip against his side.

I try and crawl away, reaching my hand for the machete.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you," He narrows his eyes at me, before grabbing the machete in his hands. He kicks me, and I get thrown back into a tree.

I whimper in pain and bite my lip from crying out. I'm not going to give Drake the satisfaction of hearing my cry. As he raises the machete, I roll away and try to run from him.

However, his whip strikes out and hits my side. I gasp and fall onto the ground, holding my bleeding hip.

"Help!" I scream out, but he quickly silences me by getting on top of my body and pressing his hand over my mouth.

I squirm underneath him, but he makes me stop by smacking his hand across my face, hard.

I bite my lip and allow tears to fall down my cheek as my face begins to sting with pain. I turn the other way to not let him see me cry. Right now I just want to hide myself.

He leans down and kisses my neck, and softly inhales.

"Sweet dreams, beautiful." He raises the machete. However, before he has time to hit me with it, I instantly slam my knee up against his crotch.

He gives out a surprised grunt of pain, and I shove him off me. I grab the machete and sit myself on top of him. I'm suddenly surprised by the way I'm overpowering him. But that surprise instantly goes away as I stare at him.

He's definitely hurt. Now I know why he's so weak. By the way he winces each time he breathes, and some of his clothing was covered in blood. What happened to him?

"Get off me, bitch." He seethes.

He tries to push me off, but I swing the machete hard against his shoulder.

He cries out in pain, and I nearly regret hitting him. I have never hurt a person before, and it seemed so wrong doing it. But I quickly convinced myself that this wasn't a person, this was Drake. He was a monster.

"You killed my brother," I feel more tears falling down my cheeks. "I hate you, I hate you!" I smack his face, but he clearly seems unfazed.

"No, moron. You killed him," He hisses at me.

"I killed him so you couldn't have him, I thought-" I cut off my sentence as I realize he's right. I thought the FAYZ wall would collapse, and we would all be free. But I was wrong. For the first time, I was wrong.

I helplessly stare at the ground.

"You thought what?" He gives his usual shark-like grin. "That the FAYZ would end and everyone could live happily ever after? That you could live with your parents without your little retarded brother following you around all the time? You probably wanted him dead. You got sick of taking care of that autistic little turd-"

"Shut up!" I scream at him. "Shut up, you horrible monster!" I'm slightly surprised by the hatred and anger in my voice. I've never been this angry before. I wasn't acting like myself at all. I always thought anger and violence should be a last resort to everything.

I raise the machete once again, but he quickly pushes me off and fights me for the machete. We are sent rolling down the forest floor, smacking and tugging each other for the machete.

He finally catches the machete in his hand. I crawl away from him and glance away, waiting for him to strike me. When he doesn't, I stare back at him to see him on his knees with the machete still in his grip.

He's coughing and letting out groans of pain. Each time he coughs, blood lands onto the floor.

He's bleeding internally..

As he coughs, I reach for my bag and grab out a strand of rope that I had brought with me. I figured it would be handy. Before he had time to react, I jumped on his side and grabbed his hand and his whip hand, making sure I tied the rope tight around them. His whip felt like a snake, and I shivered as I touched it.

He grunted in anger and wiggled his whip around the rope, slicing my hand.

I clutched my hand in pain, and pulled on the rope that held his two hands together. He tried to lunge for me, but I tripped him as I dodged his attack. He landed on the floor, screaming in frustration.

"I'm going to take you back to Sam. Where's he'll decide your fate," I say, knowing that his fate meant death. I expect Brittany to appear any minute, but when she wasn't, I silently wondered why she wasn't.

"You say that like it's so easy," He scoffs.

"Look at you, Drake. You can't even hardly move. You couldn't even defend yourself against me," I say, glaring at him.

"Guess you don't want to find your brother then.." I glares back at me, and for a second I don't even think I hear him.

"What?" I whisper. Petey's alive..?

"Where is he?" I shout at him. When he doesn't answer, I turn him over and smack his bleeding shoulder, hard.

He hisses through clenched teeth and lunges for me, but I quickly shove him back down. He looks as if he wants to carve my skull and beat me to death with the machete. I shudder and can't even imagine the sick thoughts that must be going through his head right now.

He curses at me, but I ignore him as I scream at him. "Where is he? Where's my Petey!"

"I won't tell you unless you untie me," He sneers.

"Do you really think I'm that much of an idiot? They don't call me Astrid the Genius for nothing. If I untie you, you'll kill me. And what's the use of finding Petey if I'm dead?" I cross my arms.

He mutters a curse under his breath, realizing I'm right.

"Tell me," I try and say in a threatening voice, although it comes out more pleading.

"Why should I tell you anything?" He spats.

I helplessly shrink back from him. I don't have anything to use. I can't kill him, he's immortal. I can't cut off his whip hand, either. He'll just grow it back in minutes.

"Aww, did little Astrid the Genius run out of ideas?" He mocks.

"I won't take you back to Sam, then. I'll..help you. Whatever you want, just please tell me where my brother is!" I beg, on the verge of tears.

"I don't need your help," He glares at me.

I sigh, deciding not to think of anything else. Instead, I just tug on the rope and drag him behind me. "I'll take you back to Sam, then." I coldly say.

He lets out a frustrated grunt, and for a second I think he's going to say something, but he doesn't.

* * *

**Drake's P.O.V**

As Astrid pulls me out of the forest and into the desert, I try and pull on the rope, doing anything I can to get away from her. I curse out loud and drop on my knees a few times. To my surprise, she remains calm, which pisses me off even more.

This bitch.

I never would've thought she had the guts to strike me with the machete like that. Or tie my hands with rope. She's definitely changed..

She isn't the same scared girl I had once patronized back at Coates with her retarded brother.

I had thought about telling her where her stupid brother is, but then how the hell would I know if she'd still take me back to Sam? I decided I wasn't going to tell her. She was never going to know where her brother was.

I laughed like a madman as I continued to curse her name out loud. She ignored me, as usual.

However, my laugh got cut off by my coughing. I dropped down on my knees and weakly coughed out blood, feeling my body getting weaker and weaker. I groan in pain and press my forehead against the cool sandy floor of the desert. My whole body ached, and some strands of my hair were falling off.

What did the Gaiaphage do to me?

"Drake," I hear Astrid call my name. She seems worried, but nevertheless she's still using that same angry tone.

"Get up," She walks towards me, and I nearly want to jump up and strangle her. I hate being this weak.

"Fuck you," I manage to mutter, before getting up on my feet and continuing to limp forward.

I hear her give out a silent sigh as she pulls on the rope and leads me forward.

Into the darkness of the desert.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V**

I'm tired. Physically and mentally. I just want to get back to Perdido Beach so I can rest. My legs ache from walking so far, and I can't imagine how Drake feels. I hear him cough every once in a while. He's not insulting me anymore, which is good. He's not saying anything. He's getting slower and slower, that each time I have to tug on the rope for him to keep up.

I try not to pity him.

He doesn't deserve it. After all the things he's done, all the people he's hurt. He deserves to die.

I feel a soft tug against the rope, indicating he either stopped, or he's falling behind. I pull on the rope, trying to move him forward, but he still doesn't. I turn around and stare at him for a few seconds. He stopped moving, and seems to be staring at the floor.

I try to say something, however, his body collapses and falls down the sandy hill. I let go of the rope to avoid being dragged down the hill with him. I see him fall, fall, until he finally hits the floor below.

I slowly slide down the hill to reach him. When I do, a pool of blood is forming around his body, and several strands of his light hair were falling out.

Then I realize. He has radiation in his body.

The Gaiaphage put radiation inside of him.

I walk towards him and get down on my knees to sit close to him. I softly tug on his shoulder as he gives out moans of pain.

"Drake, get up." I say.

He slightly lifts his head up from the floor to glare at me for a few seconds. However, his head weakly collapses back onto the floor. "I can't get up, you stupid bitch." He mutters.

I ignore his insult, helplessly watching as he moans again. I have never seen Drake this vulnerable before. It's almost unreal.

Was Drake actually dying? No. It can't be. He was immortal, wasn't he?

I slowly watch as his eyes close and he falls into a state of unconsciousness.

I stand back up and stare at my surroundings. The desert was empty, except for a small cabin that sat in the distance. I was guessing that it was a mile away from where we were. If it was abandoned, then maybe we could take shelter there. But, Drake was in no position to be moving anytime soon, and I was too tired to carry him all the way there.

For once, I didn't know what to do.

As soon as I was just about to give up and just lay on the desert floor, a car's headlights came into our view. The engine of the car was surprisingly silent, and as the car came completely into view, I noticed it was a black hummer.

The car drove straight towards us, and stopped inches before reaching us. My heart suddenly began to beat out of my chest. I couldn't see the people who were sitting inside the driver's seat or the passenger's seat because of the dark tinted windows. My instant worry was that it was someone from Perdido Beach sent from Caine.

However, if it was, it was completely strange. If they were from Perdido Beach, why were they out so far in the middle of the desert? It didn't make any sense.

The car's engine didn't turn off, but a girl, probably around my age stepped out of the passenger's seat and cocked a handgun at us. Her hair was a strawberry blonde color, and she had several freckles across her cheeks and her nose. Her skin was a pasty pale white color.

"Who are you two?" She questioned, still cautiously keeping the handgun at her side.

I opened my mouth to speak, but instead closed it. If she were from Perdido Beach, shouldn't she know who I was? Especially the infamous monster that was laying on the desert floor a few inches away from me?

However, if she did in fact know who we were, I can't imagine how awkward that would be. Everyone in the entire FAYZ knew that me and Drake were enemies, and that we hated each other with a passion. Anyone would find it strange if they saw me with Drake alone in the middle of the desert.

"Oh, my gosh. No, wait. I know who you are. You're Astrid. Sam's girlfriend, right?" The girl lowered her gun and blinked at me.

I felt the sudden urge to smile at her. I don't know why, but I found it amusing that everyone knew me as Sam's girlfriend, and nothing else.

"Yes. Well I was," I sheepishly admitted. Honestly, I had absolutely no idea whether me and Sam were officially broken up or not. Since neither of us really made it official that we were done.

"Oh," She had the slightest sparkle of sympathy in her eyes. Then, her gun instantly went back up as soon as her eyes averted to Drake, who was currently unconscious on the floor.

"T-that's…him! The monster. Drake," She spat with contempt, anger and fear laced in her voice. However, there was confusion as well.

"What are you two doing here? Did he hurt you?" She stared at my face, which had a slight bruise on my left cheek from Drake smacking me. And my clothes had dried blood on them, from when Drake whipped me before.

"You're safe now. You don't have to worry about him anymore," The girl reassured me, while glaring hatred at Drake.

"He isn't going to hurt anyone. He's injured." I decided to say, if that wasn't obvious enough. Seeing Drake bleeding to death on the floor.

"Good," The girl smirked, before turning her head towards the black hummer.

"Thomas! Get out here!" She yelled at the person who was in the driver's seat, whom immediately got out of the car and walked up to her. He was around my age again, with dark hair and brown eyes. He seemed rather quiet and unspoken, since he refused to make eye contact with either of us.

The girl turned her attention back to me, a smile appearing on her face. She seemed rather intimidating, despite her kindness. "I'm Christy. It's nice to meet you, Astrid." She greeted.

"It's nice to meet you too," I silently replied back.

"Take care of the monster, Thomas." Christy coldly ordered the quiet boy.

He silently nodded and made his way over to Drake.

I turned my attention towards Christy, who seemed to have a spark of evilness in her eyes whenever Drake was mentioned. "If you're going to try and kill him, it's a waste. He's immortal." I decided to explain.

And anyway, if Drake wasn't immortal anymore, I couldn't have them kill him off. I needed to take him back to Sam. It was actually half-relieved and half-upset that Thomas and Christy showed up. Without them, we could've possibly frozen to death in the middle of the desert. But I also would've still had control over Drake. Now, I was completely helpless.

"I know that. I'm not going to kill him. We're going to take him back to our place, and we're going to torture him. I want to see that monster beg for mercy. I want to see him break down and cry. He's going to pay for what he did…" Christy glares.

I give out a hopeless sigh. Drake must've done something terrible to this girl, or one of her relatives. She obviously wanted to inflict pain on him. Seeing her bloodthirsty eyes, I had slight pity what was going to come in store for Drake. But in reality, I guess Drake was receiving karma. He tortured many other kids as well.

As me and Christy stand beside the hummer, we watch as Thomas proceeds to place his arms around Drake's underarms to drag him across the desert floor and into the trunk of the black hummer.

He shuts the trunk door close, and gets back into the driver's seat. Christy climbs into the passenger's seat while I climb into one of the back seats inside the hummer. The car pulls away from the sand, and back onto the one way road that led us out or deeper into the desert.

I bite my lip as they both stay silent inside the car and drive to their place, who knows where. I silently feel nervous in the situation that I put myself in. I just wanted to be back with Sam and the others, safe.

But I feared that it would be a long time before I reached safety ever again.

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_Well, I hope you guys like this first chapter. If you didn't know already, this is set right at the end of Plague when Astrid leaves Sam. It starts at the very beginning of Fear and the story will continue from there on. So, tell me what you think so far and please leave some Reviews guys! I would appreciate it if you did :)  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**Drake's P.O.V.**

My eyes fluttered open as soon as I started to regain consciousness. My vision blurred and my head throbbed like someone had hit me with a hammer. It almost felt like a hangover, but ten times worse. I hung my head down and saw a few drops of blood on the floor as my vision began to get clearer. My body ached like a bitch, so I guessed that blood on the floor was mine.

Hm, what a pity.

Usually when I see blood, I'm overjoyed. But now, I just feel like shit.

I slowly lifted my head up, trying to scan my surroundings and figure out where the hell I exactly was. All I saw was darkness, except the small flashlight that lay on a stool next to the chair I was sitting on-

Wait, hold up.

What the fuck?

I suddenly come into realization that I was sitting on a chair inside a dark room, and my hands were tied behind my back. Feeling slightly furious, I try to shake my body in order to free my wrists from behind the chair. But to no use.

As soon as I was about to curse, a fist came out of nowhere and punched me square in the face, causing my head to reel left. I give out a surprised grunt of pain as I viciously spit out the blood that was forming inside my mouth from the impact the fist left on my face.

I silently avert my cold gaze upwards, to stare at about three boys standing in front of me. One of them was about fourteen maybe, while the other two were around the age of eleven or twelve.

I curl my lip and bare my bloody teeth out at them, which seemed to scare one of the younger boys.

"You think you can scare us? Think again, you miserable bastard." The older boy seethed at me, his dark eyes gleaming hatred.

However, I merely gave him the smallest smirk. Hatred and fear is what completes me. I love to see those kinds of expressions on my victim's faces.

"Such bad language coming from a little shit like you. Did your mommy teach you them? Or was she too busy fucking other men?" I mocked, making sure I put enough emphasis into every dirty word I spilled.

The older boy froze as soon as the words came out from my mouth. I watched as his body shook, and his hands began to shake with absolute wrath.

As I stared at his trembling form, I laughed with amusement. "I only meant that as a joke, but I guess your mommy really did go out and fuck other men. Tell me asshole, was she a prostitute forced to go out into dirty streets in order to pay for the food that you had on your plate at every dinner? You poor, poor little fuck. I almost feel sorry-"

As I was about to finish my sentence, the older boy lost it and reeled his fist backwards to give me a hard punch in the face again. However, the second his fist pulled back from my face, he began to punch me over and over again.

"Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!" He roared, tears barely forming in his eyes. He kicked my chair over to make me fall on the floor, before proceeding to kick me in the stomach.

The side of my face lay flat against the cold metal floor as my stomach exploded in pain with every kick I received. I managed to keep a tiny smirk on my face, despite every slight moan I gave out from each blow given to me.

As soon as he stopped hitting me, he stood back with his head down. His lips and shoulders were both trembling at the same time.

As blood dribbles down my chin, I let out a painful sigh as I try to move from the position I was in, with the chair still behind me, and my wrists still strapped to the sides of the chair. Normally, I would've easily been able to break free from the rope tying my wrists together, but I was just so weak from all the blood loss and vomiting I went through due to the radiation.

"You throw weak punches," I managed to mutter. "Your mom never earned enough money in order to pay for boxing lessons?"

I gave out a bitter chuckle.

The boy once again glared daggers at me, before kicking me hard in the stomach once again. "When are you going to learn your lesson, freak? The more insults you throw at me, the more I beat you." He spat.

"Do you think I care if you beat me or not? I just think it's funny to ridicule you. Believe me you little fuck, once I'm out of these ropes. I'm going to whip the skin off of you until you cry and beg for your slut of a mother to come rescue you. Then, I'm going to slice you into pieces and make those two little brats behind you watch."

At this, the two younger boys behind him instantly took a step back, glancing at both him and me with fear.

The older boy blinked at me, as if to hide his cringe. However, he continued to keep his glare at me. "You're going to kill me? Really? Have you taken a good look at yourself? You're weak and injured, nothing but a helpless person. I know who you are. The infamous monster of the FAYZ that everyone fears. You're Drake. The one with the whip hand. But believe me, when we're done with you, you're going to be begging us for mercy to stop. And that whip hand of yours will surely be removed. I don't care how many times it grows back, we'll keep cutting it each time."

I held in a laugh, before giving him a sadistic grin.

"You think I'm scared of you? I'm not scared of anyone," I hissed.

"Oh, you think so? Well I don't think you'll be thinking that way much longer," The boy almost casually spoke, while signaling one of the boys to bring him a large bucket of water that was sitting on one of the tables inside of the room.

I raised any eyebrow at the bucket, wondering what he was planning to do with it.

Was he going to pour water on me and hit me with the bucket? Or try and drown me with the water?

Psh, let him try.

I lightly chuckle as he takes the bucket from the other kid and holds it in his hands while holding it above my body on the floor. I see his eyes wince as he holds the bucket, and suddenly I see steam radiating from the water that was inside the huge blue bucket.

My eyes widen as it suddenly came into realization that the water was boiling hot.

He tilts the bucket, making most of the boiling hot water to come in contact with my skin. Once it does, I scream in agony as I hear the steam give a loud hiss when the water drops all over me.

I instantly jerk away as the bucket falls and lands in my head. I gasp for air on the floor, wincing every time I breathe. My skin burned, and red blotches were already forming. I groan and cough out a small amount of blood as the younger boys go and retrieve another bucket of boiling water.

The older boy takes the bucket and holds it over me once again.

I weakly glance up at him, my eyes wavering with anger. "Fuck you," I try and say, but it comes out as a silent whisper.

As soon as the bucket tilts and another wave of boiling water hits me, my screams start to get weaker. My vision begins to darken, and soon all I see is red.

And then I completely black out.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V**

As soon as I hear a bloodcurdling scream that sounded a bit muffled, like it was coming from a distance somewhere, I instantly sit up from the bed I was sleeping on.

The scream sounded somewhat familiar.

And then I realized the scream and agonizing moans came from down below. In the basement. Which were most likely from Drake.

I rub my eyes and glance at my surroundings. I was inside a bedroom, and sleeping on one of the beds. I couldn't tell how long I slept. I remember falling asleep in the car, much to my distress. One of the guys, maybe Thomas, must have carried me inside and placed me in bed.

I carefully remove the blankets that were on me, and take a step out of bed. The screams from downstairs were starting to quiet down, this time I only heard soft moans.

I walk away from the bed to open the door from inside the room. As I turn the rusty knob and open the door, a loud creak emits from the door which causes me to wince. I was hoping to exit the room quietly and secretly without anyone noticing, but I guess not.

Quickly before anyone saw me, I silently ran down the stairs that were in front of me, which led to downstairs. The upstairs part of the house wasn't that big. It only had about five rooms, and tight hallways.

As I took each step down, I pressed my body against the wall and tried to peer my gaze outward to see if I could catch a glimpse of anyone. When it seemed to be quiet, I took the last step down and headed towards the kitchen, where the front door was.

Maybe I could escape and get out of here. The people were extremely nice and gave me hospitality, but I didn't feel quite safe here. Something was definitely wrong with these people.

When I walk into the kitchen however, the person I see sitting on one of the chairs beside the table is Christy.

Great.

She's one of the people I wanted to avoid the most.

"Good evening, Astrid." She smiled at me. A smile that wasn't quite sincere or sweet, but more of an insane smile.

I slightly shudder. "Good evening," I replied.

"Well, you sure slept a long time." She commented, before offering me a seat next to her. "Come, sit."

I decided to comply, since the last thing I wanted to do was get on her bad side. However, I sat down in the chair across from her.

"Isn't that sound wonderful?" She closed her eyes for a few seconds and smiled, as if listening to a relaxing sound.

I blinked at her and I suddenly felt my stomach drop for some reason. "What sound?" I asked.

"His screams of pain of course. You don't know how long I've waited to hear him screaming in pain. That monster deserves every wound given to him." Christy explained.

"Oh. You mean Drake." My voice dropped. "Do you hate him just because he's a sadistic psychopath? Or is their reason for your methods?"

Christy frowned. "I have reasons. He killed my younger sister when him and his group of thugs ransacked Ralph's for food. My little sister happened to be in their way, so he whipped and strangled her. Me, of course, was helpless. I couldn't do anything except watch because I was too scared of Drake. Everyone was. I watched as my little sister died right in front of my eyes, because of that monster. Ever since that day, I ran away from Perdido Beach and teamed up with Thomas and the boys. I vowed to get back at Drake. To make him suffer worse than my little sister suffered each time his whip slashed at her skin."

I sighed, feeling slightly sorry for her. "Drake is evil, I know. He made my life a living hell. He's the only person that ever hit me in my life, and he tormented me in front of my little autistic brother. He made me call him-a retard," I nearly choked on words. My heart ached for Petey, and my hands trembled at the thought of that miserable day when Drake tormented me.

Christy put her hands on the table, as if to reach out for my hands and reassure me. "It's okay. He won't ever hurt you again. Once I'm done with him, he won't ever hurt anyone again."

I shook my head. "If you keep hurting him, it's only going to be fire against fire. He'll never learn. He won't care. The fact that you're happy because you're torturing someone proves that you're just the same as he is,"

Christy edged away from the table, nearly glaring at me. "Don't ever say that I'm the same as that monster. And he's not a person, he's a heartless nobody. The world would be much better off without him. He's a deranged psychopath who needs to die," She insisted. "I'm doing the world a favor. Astrid, can't you see? I'm a hero."

"Oh, Christy.." I began.

"No, don't say it." She spat, interrupting me. "I know you're going to say violence is never the answer. That's only a saying for the weak. You won't get anywhere in life with just brains Astrid, you need to learn how to be tough and unforgiving as well."

I opened my mouth to say something, but soon closed it as I realized she had a point. There was some saying to her words.

"I'm sorry, Astrid. But that's the truth," She repeated.

"I don't really want to argue with you right now, I'm just…going to go back to my room." I furrowed my brows, feeling a slight headache coming in. I was tired of arguing with people. I know I couldn't just shove reason and logic down their throat, they just wouldn't listen.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Christy struggled to say something, but instead allow me to excuse myself from the table. "Alright," She spoke.

I walked away from the table, still feeling her eyes watching me leave.

I just really needed to get out of here.

Many hours passed and I was still laying in bed, without an idea of what to do. I took a long nap, which lasted about two hours. I kept waking up due to the noises down in the basement. The unspeakable horrors that were going on down there.

I hated hearing those sounds. They made me sick to my stomach.

However the sounds had completely stopped for at least an hour now. And there was absolutely no movement happening down there. Maybe Drake was dead?

Could that actually be possible?

But no, he's immortal. That can't be.

I slowly sat up from my bed to glance out at the window that sat up on my bed. It was completely dark outside, which that meant it was night. Just to make sure, I averted my blue gaze towards the old clock that hung against the wall beside me. It read 11:17.

Since I didn't feel tired at all after sleeping for basically a whole day, I got up from my bed and crept out of the room, guessing that everyone was already asleep. Taking the same route out, I made my way down the stairs and proceeded to walk towards the front door very quietly.

My heart thumped nervously as I made it to the front door. However, as soon as I was about to open it and escape, my blue gaze caught sight of the basement door which was only very slightly ajar.

Curiosity overtook me as I continued to stare at the darkness that emitted within the basement. A part of me wanted to investigate it, but then the other part of me screamed to be free and escape.

I nearly cursed myself as I took my hand away from the knob of the front door.

Stupid, foolish, me.

I just had an overwhelming urge to go inside that basement.

I slowly walked towards the basement door, only opening it a few inches to make sure it wouldn't make the same load creak that it made when I walked downstairs. As soon as I felt that it was open enough, I reached for a flashlight that was sitting on the table before squeezing through the small space through the basement door.

As soon as I made it through, I breathed out shaky gasps as I turned on the flashlight. There was a row of steps down to proceed deeper into the basement. It was chillingly cold inside the basement, and I slightly wished I had a jacket or a blanket. The only thing I had on was an over-sized black t-shirt and dirty jeans.

When I made my way down the steps, I instinctively brushed my long blonde hair over my shoulder in an attempt to avoid it from hitting any cobwebs. There was cobwebs all over the ceiling and within corners. And I swore I saw a small black spider scatter across the step below my feet.

I inhaled and tried to toughen up as soon as my foot reached the bottom step of the stairs. I walked forward and lit my flashlight towards the direction I was headed towards. The basement was actually fairly small, and I the second I stepped off those stairs, I already saw everything I needed to see.

Strapped against a chair was the bloody, nearly unrecognizable body of Drake. His head was slightly drooped down, his breathing was very light and stressed. It seemed every time he breathed, there was a low, strained wheezing sound coming from him. Besides that, there was rope harshly tied around his mouth to keep him from talking. His eyes were hallow, having dark circles around them from lack of rest.

I pointed my flashlight at him, and watched as he slightly stirred. Blood was spilling down his dry lips and falling down his chin.

I walked towards him to stand inches next to his chair. The second I noticed him struggling to breathe or cough, I carefully reached down and removed the rope from around his mouth.

As expected, as soon as I removed the rope from his mouth, he spit out, or rather vomited a large amount of blood. I bit my lip as he vomited the last amount of blood, and watched as his face turned a deathly pale color and his lips began to turn purple from so much blood loss.

"Drake.." I managed to whisper. My voice was filled with sympathy and slight horror.

Without even once looking at me, he weakly breathed in air and slowly turned his head to face the other way. "Don't pretend to feel sorry for me," He managed to weakly mutter.

I was at a loss for words as I stared at his battered body. His skin had burn marks on them, and he had bruises all over his body. When his t-shirt lifted up, it showed the faintest hint of bare skin, which was covered in blood.

I carefully lifted his shirt up, and what lie on his stomach was completely horrific. He had been branded with the words "Psychopath," "Murderer," and "Monster." Those three words were spelled out in his own blood on his stomach.

I nearly wanted to throw up.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to torture me too? You hate me too. Everyone does. Come on. Do it," Drake glared complete hatred at me.

I didn't reply, but merely sniffled.

"Do it, you pathetic little bitch. I dare you! I know you want to do it. I know you want to see me in pain," He spat, baring his shark teeth at me.

"No. I'm not like you, Drake. I don't like hurting people for my own sick amusement, no matter how much I hate them." I coldly replied.

He managed to give out a small chuckle, despite it being laced with pain.

"I knew you wouldn't. You're too weak, too fragile.." He finished off his sentence with the tiniest smirk.

I frowned at him.

"Well, if you're not going to torture me then, quit standing there and untie me." He glared.

I blinked at him. "If I untie you, you'll whip me to death. Do you really think I'm that stupid? Honestly, I think you forget who you're dealing with,"

"Untie me," He demanded again, which came out more as a deranged snarl.

"No." I repeated.

"Astrid," He spoke my name, which came out rather polite.

I continued to stare at him, my blue gaze wavering.

"Untie me, or you're going to wish you were never born," He sadistically ordered.

"What are you going to do to me? Your hands are tied, you can't do anything." I informed him.

"Untie me, you stupid whore!" He roared, before violently shaking the chair he was tied to. "Or I'll whip you're pretty face off until there's nothing left but bone!"

All of the yelling and loud cursing Drake was making caused commotion to stir upstairs as I saw lights emitting from up above. They heard him yelling and they were awake.

"Drake, stop. Be quiet, they'll hear you!" I said in a hushed whisper.

"I don't give a shit, I'll whip them all, if you'll just untie me!" He cursed.

I groaned and grabbed the rope to tie it back around his mouth. He cursed and flailed around the chair, keeping his piercing glare on me.

As I strained to listen to the movement and noises upstairs, I caught notice of Drake's whip struggling around the rope that tied it to the back of the chair. His whip was at least a few inches shorter than it originally was. It also was severely burned, and had scars all over it. They must have tried cutting it off several times, but of course it kept growing back.

When the commotion quieted upstairs, I instantly heard the loud creaking from the basement door and footsteps making their way down the stairs.

As soon as we heard the footsteps, Drake gave off a frustrated muffled sound before withering against the chair.

I nervously shook with anticipation as I waited for the person to appear in our sight. As the footsteps quieted down, the two people that appeared from the shadows of the basement were Thomas and Christy.

The flashlight they were holding tilted forward and beamed in my face. I squinted as I strained to stare at them from the bright light. At first the two of them seemed angry and hostile, however as soon as they saw my face, their expressions quickly dropped.

"Astrid? What are you doing here?" Christy asked with disbelief.

I opened my mouth to say something, searching for a good excuse. "I-got curious. I wanted to see the basement,"

I mentally curse myself for saying such a stupid excuse.

"The basement is off limits to you," Thomas calmly spoke, before turning over and glaring at Drake.

"I heard yelling. Did he hurt you?" Christy nervously glared at Drake as well.

"No. He didn't," I softly replied.

"Good," Christy raised an eyebrow, before making her way towards Drake. "I hope you're comfortable Drake," She seethed with hate.

Drake glared up at her, sharing her hatred with his. He gave out a muffled curse, probably to insult her, no doubt.

She stared at his eyes for about a minute, before narrowing her eyes with complete disgust. "I hate staring at those monstrous eyes all the time. Something needs to be done about them. Thomas, pull his head up."

I watched as Thomas made his way over the struggling Drake, and forcefully grab a handful of his air to violently pull his head up.

"Christy, what are you doing?" I instantly questioned, my eyes wide with fear.

She reached for a sharp needle that was on the table and stood over Drake, before bending over and forcefully opening his left eye.

I breathed in shaky gasps of air as I watched Drake's breathing get heavier and faster. He gave out a row of muffled curses.

"Christy, don't do this." I tried to say, but I knew it fell on deaf ears. She was going to ignore me no matter what I said.

She positioned the needle right in front of Drake's wavering dark brown eye, before slowly moving it forward. Inches before it came within reach of Drake's eye, she frowned and quickly proceeded to push the needle into his eye.

The second that needle pierced his eye, a bloodcurdling scream came from Drake, as well as muffled groans and cries. She twisted the needle, and watched as blood spurted out from his eye and ran down his cheeks like tears.

I felt my knees go weak and my skin grow pale. I quickly turn around and try to breathe normally, as I try not to pass out or cry from seeing someone tortured to this extreme extent.

Once she twisted the needle into his eyes a good few times, she pulled it out. Drake continued to scream and curse, until Christy finally pulled the rope from his mouth. His breathing sounded heavy and raspy as he struggled to close his bleeding eye.

"Fu..ck. You.." He gasped. "Fuck..all of…yo.u. I'll kill..you." He completed his sentence before coughing up an enormous amount of blood.

Christy twirled the bloody needle between her fingers. "Consider yourself lucky that I'm not stabbing your other eye as well," She curled her lip before signaling for Thomas to let go of his hair.

Thomas complied and released his hair.

My lip quivered as Christy moved away from Drake and made her way towards me. She was about at least a foot taller than me, so she placed both her hands against my cheeks and quietly shushed me. "Don't be scared, Astrid. Everything's fine. He deserves it, remember."

I weakly blinked at her, before slightly glancing over at Drake, who was heavily bleeding against the chair. His head was drooped down, and he was continuing to give out horrible, raspy breaths.

I decided to say nothing, since I had nothing to say, nor did I want to say anything to her.

Christy had become the very monster she waited for so long to destroy. She had became a cold-blooded sadist, and only darkness covered her heart.

No matter how much hatred I had inside of me, I vowed to myself that I would never turn as evil as Drake and become like Christy.

I needed to be strong and toughen up through this. For once in my life, I had nothing to say. I didn't want to say anything, not ever. I just wanted to go crawl in a corner and hide myself from the horrors that was going on in this room.

Silence was now my friend.

* * *

**A/N:**

_This chapter is very dark and gory if you haven't noticed yet lol. Poor Drakie :( I feel sorry for making him be tortured, but it was just to add drama to the story. Thank you Rowena Marie for reviewing :) hopefully I'll get more reviews on this chapter! Yes? Please? :3_


	3. Chapter 3

**Drake's P.O.V.**

I miserably sat against the dirty chair inside of the basement, straining to lift my head up so I wouldn't fall asleep. I hadn't slept for almost a week, which was the amount of time I've been here and have been tortured for almost every minute of the day. Every time I accidentally fell asleep or passed out, one of those bastards would come downstairs and dump water all over me. If I was really lucky, the water wouldn't be boiling hot.

My neck hurt for being in the same drooped position constantly. It even hurt to breathe, because of the burns I received on my chest from the boiling water. My lips were incredibly dry from lack of water, so it made me incapable of talking too much. I tried to stay silent for most of the time, unless I was moaning or screaming.

I weakly opened my one good eye, the one that wasn't bloody and closed from being stabbed with by a needle two days before. Curse that stupid bitch for nearly taking my eye out. I was going to make sure to whip her nice and hard if I ever got out of here.

When I heard footsteps coming down the basement, I inwardly groaned and braced myself for more torture. I knew it had to be them. Astrid hadn't came down here again since two days earlier, when that bitch Christy stabbed me in the eye. They probably treated Astrid like the stupid little princess she was, and she was too scared to come down here again.

Once the footsteps came closer towards me, I kept my gaze on the floor. However, a hand came from behind me and yanked my hair upwards, causing my head to slightly jerk. My gaze wavered, as I stared into the empty eyes of that witch that was now currently on the top of my list on the people I wanted to kill.

"Hello, Drakie." Christy gave me a sadistic grin, pretending to be enthusiastic with her voice.

I merely let out a deep, painful, sigh.

"I have something fun to do today," She smiled at me, before showing me her lighter. "It has to do with using this, though. I hope you like fire,"

I tried to shift away from her, but that asshole Thomas who was holding me by the hair, made sure I stayed still. I swallowed salty blood that was in my mouth, before breathing rapidly.

Christy made her way around me and stopped behind me. I slightly wondered what she was about to do, but she quickly grabbed my hand that was tied around the chair and squeezed it roughly before bringing the lighter close to it.

"No…" I tried to mumble, but instead all that came out was a sickly moan.

"Shut up," She sneered, and flicked the lighter on. She pressed the small flame against my entire hand, which caused it to immediately engulf in flames.

Having no energy left to scream, I just cried out in pain and gave off agonizing moans.

My hand slowly burned within the fire, and it was so painful to handle, I secretly wished that they would just cut it off.

Just cut it off.

Kill me, please. Anything.

Anything to make the pain stop.

"Oh, don't worry. We have water to put that fire out, don't we Thomas?" I heard Christy say.

Thomas immediately walked over to the table beside us and picked up a metal bucket filled with water. I stared at the bucket of water, impatiently moaning in pain, just wanting them to put out the fire already.

He tossed the water over my hand, but the instant the water touched my flesh, I regretted wanting the water. The water was boiling hot once again. And added to the immense pain on my hand that I was already feeling. I almost smirked at my stupidity for not realizing it was hot water sooner.

I gave a out a miserable chuckle laced with an agonizing cry. "You…son of a bitch…" I breathed out, letting tears roll down my face because the pain was too bad.

Thomas kicked my chair over, and I harshly landed on the floor. My hands were still tied to the chair, so I just pressed my face against the cold floor and begin to throw up from the pain of my badly burnt hand.

Christy watched me as I vomited all over the floor with disgust. She said something to Thomas, something I couldn't quite understand since I was on the verge of passing out. However, my entire body slightly relaxed when I heard their footsteps walk away from the basement and back up the stairs.

I was left on the floor with the chair still strapped against my back, and my burnt hand still red and steaming. I slowly closed my eyes and passed out, my body covered in my own blood and vomit.

As I slowly started to wake from my state of unconsciousness, I find myself still on the floor, which meant that nobody had came into the basement yet. My eyes fluttered close as I struggled to keep them open. I didn't know how long I was asleep for. My burnt hand felt numb, and it only hurt when I tried moving it.

However, as I slightly wiggled my whip around the rope that was tied around it and my hand, I felt the rope somehow looser. And I instantly realized that it's strength had been weakened since some of the flame had burned through it.

Before I tried to break free of it, I heard footsteps come down the basement once again. So I decided to let my body relax and try again a little bit later. I had to regain as much of my strength back possible.

When the footsteps continued to get closer, Thomas revealed himself and proceeded to make his way towards me. I tried to hold in a snarl as I glared at him through narrowed eyes.

"Well, look who's awake," He slightly grinned, before forcefully yanking my hair up and bringing my chair up with me. He faced the chair back up and towards him while he stood inches away from my face.

"I brought you water. Thought you might want some," He held an ice cold water bottle in front of me, causing me to nearly reach for it in desperation.

"Here, take the water." He opened the bottle, and continued to hold it in front of me.

I grunted and struggled to reach the water, however I had nothing to grab it with since my hand was still tied.

"Oh, that's right, I forgot. You don't have any hands to grab it with, they're sort of tied up." Thomas pretended to frown. "Oh well, I know best not to waste this nice cold water. I'll just drink it all myself,"

Thomas brought it up to his mouth and chugged the entire water bottle down, before pouring all the remaining water he didn't drink onto the floor. "Oops. I guess I accidentally spilled it."

I helplessly watched as all that water dropped onto the floor, my dry mouth felt like burning. I nearly wanted to scream at that point. I seethed with anger, my breathing filled with angry gasps.

"I'll be sure to bring you more water. In about a week or so," Thomas smiled, before coming inches close to my face.

Once my gaze met his, I couldn't take it anymore. I violently shook against the chair and tried to cut free of the rope that was tied around my hand and whip.

"You're still trying to escape? I told you, it's no use, moron." Thomas explained.

I sliced my whip against the rope, before cutting it off completely. The second the rope fell from my hands and onto the floor, I took no time to bring my whip up and wrap it around Thomas's neck. He gave out a surprised yelp as the whip touched his flesh, cutting into his skin.

"How. Did you get free?" Thomas stared at me with frightened eyes, before trying to escape from my whip.

I knew of so many things to say at that moment, possibly a snaky remark, however my throat was completely dry so my vocabulary was very limited. There was only so much I could say, but when I said it, I knew I got my word out.

"I'm going to fuck you up," I growled.

"No. Please, no." Thomas was about to scream, however I quickly wrapped my whip around his mouth as a signal to say if he tried to scream any more, I would strangle him until his eyes popped out.

Let the killing begin.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

We were all at the table when we heard the loud noises coming from the basement. Christy and the two other younger boys went down to the basement to go see what it was, so I was left back upstairs.

I sat at the table for at least a half hour, and I silently wondered why they were taking so long from the basement. I heard muffled screaming down in the basement, but I figured that the screams were from Drake.

I had swore that I would never go down in that basement ever again since that day when Christy stabbed Drake in the eye. It was horrible what they were doing to him. I didn't have the stomach for it.

A few more minutes passed and I glanced around the kitchen, catching sight of the hummer's car key up on the counter beside the kitchen stove. I continued to stare at it and began to wonder whether or not I should take them.

I slightly peered around to see if anyone might have come up from the basement, but when all I heard was silence, I got up from the table and ran towards the keys to pick them up. Once I grabbed them in my hands, I quickly walked to the front door and turned the knob to open the door. Once outside, I searched around for the black hummer and found it near the front of the house.

I opened the car door and got into the driver's seat. I pushed in the key into the ignition and started the car up. Once the engine gave off a silent roar, I placed my hand against the gear stick and began to put it in drive. However, I felt my hand pushing it back down to park as I began to wonder whether Drake was alive or not.

Christy and the others left to the basement about an hour ago. Shouldn't they have come upstairs yet? It was also abnormally quiet down there than usual. Should I maybe go check..?

I bit my lip and run my fingers through my long blonde hair.

Why did I want to check the basement so bad again?

I gave an inward groan to curse my curiosity once again. Something kept dragging me down there, making an urge for me to always want to go down there for some reason.

I sigh and turn off the car, listening as the engine went completely silent. I opened the car door and slide out of the driver's seat, before walking back inside the house once again. I reach for the knob of the front door and open it.

Walking back inside the house and shutting the front door behind me, I opened the basement door and frowned at myself for wasting several chances to escape already. Once I opened the basement door, I realized that there weren't any flashlights around, so I decided to walk down the steps and let pitch darkness engulf me whole.

It was still silent. Too silent. I felt my hands tremble against my sides as I slowly continued to walk down the steps.

"Hello..?" I tried to softly call out, my voice sounding like a frightened lost child.

I stepped off the last step of the stairs and immediately saw a flashlight on the floor. I quickly reached down and picked it up, but when I flashed the light around the area I nearly wanted to scream.

The sight before me was absolutely horrific.

Thomas was on the floor, dead. He had strangle marks around his neck and his skin was entirely burnt from head to toe. He looked like he had been on fire.

Christy was also dead on the floor. Her eyes had been gouged out and she had immense bruises and cuts all over her body. Both of their faces were unrecognizable, and their mouth were wide open, as if they died screaming.

The two younger boy were also dead in the corner. Having whip marks on them as well.

I trembled and raised my flashlight to a figure that was standing in the middle of all this bloody mess.

Drake.

He standing there, with his head drooped down. He looked badly injured as well too. He was all bloody and hid hand was severely burnt. He was also covered in dirt and blood was dripping from his mouth.

I heard him give out a wheezy gasp of air and slowly glance up at me with hate-filled eyes. When he bared his teeth out at me, each one of them were covered in blood, as if he went to the dentist and they had a terrible accident.

He slowly moved his body and dragged himself towards me, before raising his whip hand at me. I flinched as he reached forward and grabbed me by the arm with his whip. I struggled to break free as I tried to pull away from him.

However, his hold on me was fairly weak, as I noticed his whip trembling against my arm. It quickly unwrapped itself off my arm as Drake collapsed onto the floor, inches away from my feet.

I watched as he coughed up blood, and writhed in pain against the dirty floor.

I felt helpless in this sort of situation, but I decided to search for the rope that was tied around his hands so I could tie it back around his. He was still my prisoner. I had to make sure to get him back to Sam.

I reached for the rope that was sitting beside the chair that Drake was originally tied to, before going back to the weak body of Drake was still laying on the floor, filled with his own blood.

I reach for his hand and whip hand, before grabbing them both and proceeding to tie the rope around them. However, once I tied it and properly secured the knot, the rope accidentally brushed across his burnt hand rather roughly.

He let out an instant scream of pain once the rope was tied tightly around his burnt hand. He coughed out more blood, along with some of his tears of agony.

"Sorry," I quickly mumbled once he screamed. Realizing I tied the rope too tight, I made sure to loosen it.

As I watched him moan and breathe heavily against the floor, I absent-mindedly softly stroked the side of his face, as if to reassure him that no more pain would come to him. Even though he was a monster, I felt sorry for him. He went through absolute hell this week. Tortured almost every single minute.

Once I began to stroke his face, he seemed to respond to that by trying to jerk away. However, once he began to fall unconscious, he stopped moaning and relaxed his face against my hand.

As he fell unconscious, I tried to make an effort to lift him up, but he was fairly heavy for my smaller and weak size, despite him being starved for a week and losing a lot of weight.

Feeling uncomfortable in the dirty and bloody environment of the basement, I slowly nudged Drake in order to try and wake him up. "Drake get up, please.." I insisted.

He gave out a sigh, before stirring from his unconscious state. He seemed to slightly wake up from me shaking him. "Shut ..up.." He weakly spoke.

"You have to get up," I urged, trying once more to lift him up from the floor. I winced as I placed his arm around my shoulder and try to slowly move him. However, once his entire body leaned against mine, I trembled and grew weak. Instead of just continuing forward, I merely let him fall from my arms and back onto the floor.

When he hit the floor, his bare skin came in contact with the hard concrete floor, which had probably got to hurt since his skin was badly burned. He seethed and clenched his teeth in anger as he gave out a silent grunt of pain. "You stupid bitch.." He breathed.

"I can't carry you," I frowned, before self-consciously wrapping my arms over my shoulders because of the coldness of the basement.

Several minutes passed and I watched Drake as he lay emotionless against the floor, softly breathing in and out. He opened his eyes once more, and made a move to try to get up from the floor.

Once he was on his knees, he reached up and coiled his whip around my waist, as if to use me for a support.

"Lift me up," He cursed.

I softly grabbed his other arm and placed it around my shoulders once more. As soon as he was completely off the floor and standing on his two feet, he trembled and let his whip fall to his side.

I continued to walk forward, making sure I took slow steps in order to make sure I wasn't going too fast for Drake. I half-dragged him towards the stairs of the basement and began to lead him up the steps.

Even step we took, he would wince and clench his teeth in pain. His breathing grew heavier, and every time he would place his foot against a step, his entire body would tremble with agony.

Once we were finally almost at the top of the stairs, he made a wrong step and accidentally tripped over one of the steps, twisting his foot in the process. "Damn it!" He cried out, but I instantly grabbed him by the waist and managed to support him back up.

"I got you," I reassured him, before slowly leading him up the last few steps. Once we made it out of the basement and into the kitchen, I proceeded to drag him towards the front door. With my hand around his waist, I used my other hand to turn the knob and exit out of the house.

As we walked to the black hummer, I noticed a trail of blood coming from behind us, most likely from one of Drake's wounds. I took a quick glance at him and saw that his face was abnormally pale, and his eyelids kept drooping down. His breathing was getting more raspy and struggled.

When we got to the hummer, I opened the car door and dragged Drake into the back seats. I placed his weak body to lay across the seats. He slowly began to close his eyes once his head rested on the soft cushion of the seat.

I closed the door and climbed up front into the driver's seat, before pulling out the keys from my pocket. I quickly put them in the ignition and turned on the car. After that, I took no time to pull away from the miserable existence of the house and drive away back onto the desert road.

I kept my eyes in front of me and watched as the sun started to set ahead of us. My intention was to find that strange cabin that I had saw before Christy and Thomas found us and took us away.

After that, I didn't know what my intentions would be, honestly. Especially with Drake. I took a glance at the front view mirror and noticed that he had fell asleep in the back seats. Either that, or he passed out from blood loss once again.

All that mattered right now was getting to that cabin.

Within the darkness of the desert.

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_Finally, they escaped from the house. Hope you guys like it so far. And thanks for leaving me reviews. Leave some more :)**  
**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I drove next to the front of the abandoned cabin that lay in the middle of nowhere. The cabin looked to be about a two story house, possibly a vacation house for travelers who liked to go camping in the desert next to the woods. The cabin was a little worn down, but nevertheless, it seemed to be in good condition.

I put the car in park and turned off the engine before glancing at the back seat where Drake was at. He wasn't moving at all, and for a second or two I thought he was dead, until I caught sight of the faintest rising of his chest.

I opened the door to get out of the car so I could make my way towards the back and open the door. Once I opened the door, Drake continued to stay unmoving and asleep. I debated whether to just leave him in the car by himself but I decided against it. I had to get him inside the cabin so I could keep my eye on him.

I gently nudged his shoulder in order to try and wake him up. When my hand nudged his shoulder, he slightly turned his body the other way. He gave out a raspy breathing noise and cough.

"Drake, please, get up." I urged, before trying to pull him out of the car in the gentlest manner possible.

He moaned and struggled to breathe as he fluttered his eyes open. His eyes were distressed, and hurt. Not like their usual cocky and sadistic glint.

Once I pulled him all the way out of the car, I grabbed his arm and placed it around my shoulder. At this point, I decided not to use the rope to tie his hands together anymore. It was much easier to carry him this way. However, once I took a step forward, his legs suddenly trembled and collapsed from underneath him.

I gasped and quickly held him up with the most amount of strength left in my body. He quickly leaned against me and coughed up the smallest amount of blood. As blood dribbled down his chin, I wondered if he had any blood or fluid left in his body.

"Just leave me here…" He managed to choke out, before breathing in heavy and weak gasps of air.

"The cabin is just a few steps away," I reassured him, before supporting him against my shoulder and nearly pulling him towards the front door of the cabin. He held onto me and trembled, his head drooping down. He was falling back unconscious quick.

I opened the front door and walked him inside the cabin, before closing the door behind me. The cabin was freezing, since it was night outside. However, it was rather refreshing and nice. There was a couch in the middle of the living room, where I placed Drake in.

He rested his head against the cushion of the couch and had his arm drooped down over the side of the couch. His eyes immediately closed, but he was still breathing rather heavily.

I averted my blue eyes around the cabin. I discovered that it was rather plain, only having a lamp and a couch in the living room. There was also a small TV in front of the couch. There was also a bathroom right next to the living room and kitchen. The kitchen was very small but seemed to be clean. All the walls were made of sturdy wood.

I made my way over to the kitchen and opened a few of the cupboards. There was food there, to my excitement. It wasn't a very big variety, since there was only crackers and cookies. Some were even cups of noodles. It made my mouth instantly water by just looking at it. I opened the other cupboard and discovered a small variety of medicines too. They had bandages, cotton, asprin, burn cream, and alcohol.

It was a miracle to have found medicine and food in the cabin. But I had guessed that whoever lived here before had medicine just in case someone got hurt while hiking. I quickly grabbed the bandages, alcohol, and burn cream. Before I made my way to Drake, I also grabbed a cloth that was sitting next to the sink.

I kneeled down on the floor beside the couch as I placed all the items that I had grabbed on the floor. I opened the bottle of alcohol that I had grabbed, which was already nearly half empty from use.

I bit my lip and softly lifted Drake's torn up shirt to reveal his bloody stomach which had been branded with words. It made me sick to my stomach to stare at it. However, I had to make sure it wouldn't get infected.

"This is going to hurt, so bite down." I grabbed the cloth and stuffed it into Drake's mouth, who now weakly opened my eyes to stare at me with confusion and anger.

I grabbed the bottle of alcohol and slowly poured it on his wound, which made Drake hiss with pain and moan. He clenched his teeth against the cloth that I had put into his mouth.

"Sorry," I murmured, before taking the cloth from his mouth and gently dabbing it over his open wounds. I took the bandages and softly wrapped them around his abdomen. He winced and weakly glanced up at me, before fluttering his eyes close once again.

I took his burnt hand in mine and gently rubbed the burn cream against his burn. I heard him give a content sigh beside me. I placed his hand back against the couch when I was done applying the burn cream.

After I left him to rest on the couch, I went over to the cupboard to put the medicine away. Reaching for the other cupboard with food, I took out the bag of chocolate chip cookies and ate one.

It tasted slightly stale, but nevertheless my taste buds were satisfied. I haven't had a cookie in a long while.

When I glanced over at the fridge, I curiously opened the fridge door to reveal a variety of soft drinks and beverages. There was a whole package of water bottles inside the fridge, along with several cans of unopened Sprite and Coke. I found myself grinning with glee at all the drinks. I quickly took a Coke from the fridge and opened the can, allowing the cold Coke to refresh my dry throat.

I ate a few more cookies and drank more Coke, until I decided to save some for later. I put everything away before making my way upstairs to the undiscovered second floor. Once I got to the top, it wasn't much. Only two rooms. A bathroom and a master bedroom. Both rooms were connected to each other. I entered the master bedroom and saw that the bed was nicely made, like if it were a hotel room. The room was plain as well, having only a picture of a waterfall hanging against the wall and a lamp in the corner.

I instantly climbed into the bed, finding it incredibly soft. The pillows provided cushion and the mattress was clean and provided support. I got under the covers, slightly shivering when a small breeze of air came inside the room from the window. I nuzzled my head against the warm pillows and closed my eyes to enter a deep sleep.

* * *

**Drake's P.O.V.**

The chilling coldness of the room woke me up from my sleep. I breathed out raspy gasps of air as I stared around the room. I had no idea where the hell I was, the only thing I remembered was faintly seeing Astrid beside me. I tried to sit up from where I was, but instantly regretted it as a surging pain went through my body. I winced and clutched my aching side. As I did, I noticed that my abdomen was all bandaged up. My eyebrows furrowed, confused. I realized Astrid must've bandaged me, but I didn't understand why.

I trembled as the cold crept along my skin. My skin was icy cold to the touch, and my body couldn't stop shaking. I looked around and noticed that I wasn't wearing any blankets and the couch wasn't providing any means of warmth at all.

I gave out a cough and moaned as I felt a wave of nausea came over me. As I caught notice of a bathroom several steps away from where I was, I took no time into getting up from the couch, despite the pain I was feeling, and limping over to the bathroom.

As soon as I reached the toilet, I fell over and hung my head over to the toilet, before throwing up inside of it. I hurled up blood and yellow fluids, since I had no more fluids left in my system from vomiting so much. I gave out an exhausted moan as I pressed my forehead against the cold toilet seat.

Black spots were clouding my vision as I weakly struggled to keep my eyes open. I groaned and turned my head over, before throwing up in the toilet once more. My stomach ached from throwing up so much, and my body trembled with cold.

"Fuck…me," I weakly sputtered out.

I dry heaved into the toilet and gave out an anguished whimper, hoping I would just pass out again.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I woke up to a light downstairs, and the sound of vomiting. Realizing it was Drake, I groggily got up from my comfortable spot on the bed and suddenly shivered when I tossed the blankets off me. I grabbed one of the three blankets I was using, and wrapped it around my body before making my way downstairs to the noise.

I clutched the blanket as the coldness of the room hit me downstairs. It was considerably colder downstairs than it was upstairs, and then I suddenly felt bad. Drake must've been dying of cold. He had no blankets on the couch with him.

I carefully entered the bathroom, where the noise was coming from. When I walked inside the bathroom, I instantly found Drake on the floor, dry heaving over the toilet. I gave him a sympathetic frown as I sat beside him. I watched him moan in agony and exhaustion as he stopped throwing up.

He trembled as he leaned his head against the toilet with his eyes struggling to fall close. I grabbed a cloth from underneath the cabinets underneath the sink, before wetting it with water and placing the cloth against his face to wipe it clean. He violently turned his head away from the cloth and pushed it away, before staring at me with his steely gaze. His eyes drooped with the lack of sleep for a week and his lips were turning purple from the cold.

I pulled his weak body against mine and wrapped the blanket around the both of us as I rested his head against my lap. I expected him to push me away, but to my surprise, he welcomed the warmth and nuzzled his forehead against my stomach. I sighed and softly stroked his hair, before feeling his forehead, which was considerably warm.

The fact that he had a fever wasn't a good sign. The rest of his body was icy cold, while his forehead was warm.

It came to my realization that he was out of it, since his eyes began to close. Before he fell asleep, I decided to support him back up from the floor to drag him up the stairs with me. I figured to let him sleep in the master bedroom, since it was warmer and way more comfortable than the couch downstairs.

As I entered the master bedroom, I placed Drake down on the bed. As soon as his body fell onto the mattress, he gave out a sigh and drifted into sleep. I crawled into bed to cover him with blankets. Once I did, I began to make my way off the bed to sleep on the floor, but I felt something instantly coil around my waist and bring me back.

I gave out a gasp of surprise when Drake's whip coiled around me and brought me against his chest. I slightly struggled but then relaxed once I realized he was still asleep. I then suddenly realized that he didn't know he was pulling me, he thought I was a warm pillow.

His face was inches away from my head, so I could feel his breathing against the back of my ear. His whip instinctively wrapped tighter around my waist, causing me to wince. I tried to somehow loosen his grip around me, but his whip wouldn't budge. I decided to just bear through the squeezing pain my waist was feeling.

I rested my head against a pillow and reached for the blankets to cover them over me as well. I relaxed and fluttered my eyes close as I tried to go back to sleep. The warmth of Drake's body next to mine and the comfort of the pillows and mattress took over me, so I soon found myself in a world of sleep.

* * *

**A/N:**

_ Sorry for the long update, guys. Hope you like this chapter :) REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW ~_


	5. Chapter 5

**Drake's P.O.V.**

I let out a small groan as I slowly opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. It felt like I was asleep for days, and my head hurt like a bitch. However, I didn't feel exhausted or nauseous anymore. So I guess that was a good thing. My left eye still felt oddly swollen from when Christy stuck a needle in it.

I glanced around the room I was apparently in, and the bed I was on. I had no idea where I was, or how exactly I got on the bed. The only thing I remember was brutally killing Christy and her group of faggots. I enjoyed every second of whipping their skins off. After that, I only vaguely remembered being in a car and throwing up in a bathroom.

I also remembered Astrid being with me for some reason. That bitch.

I grunted and tried to lift my head from the pillow but then discovered that my whip hand was tied around something. As soon as I saw long blonde hair sticking out of the covers next to me, I pulled the covers away to reveal my whip hand attached to Astrid's waist, holding her tightly.

She was sound asleep next to me, only wearing a long white T-shirt and her underwear.

I muttered a curse under my breath as I tried not to look at her tan long legs that were beside mine. Her long eyelashes caressing her cheeks as she slept, her chest clearly visible through her T-shirt, was rising and falling.

Why did she have to be so damn beautiful?

I quickly released my whip hand from her waist. As soon as my whip left her waist, there were very visible bruises on her waist the matched the shape of my whip perfectly. I must've been squeezing her too hard throughout the night. Confusion filled my face as to why she didn't try to get away from me, instead she stayed and dealt with the pain of my whip all night.

A content smirk appeared on my face upon seeing the bruise that I had caused on her. As my gaze stayed on her bruised waist, I began to stare at her soft skin, which appeared to be so flawless. I absent-mindedly stroked her waist and lower abdomen with my bandaged hand. However, as soon as I realized what I was doing, I quickly pulled away.

Anger clouded my face as I stared at her. I couldn't let her beauty enhance me, I had to kill her. I wanted to whip her pretty little face off. It would be too easy. She was a little lamb sleeping with a blood-thirsty lion.

I allowed my whip to strangle her waist once again, this time squeezing it as hard as I could. She stayed silent for a few seconds, before stirring in her sleep and giving out a painful whimper. I heard her gasp in shock as soon as she woke, her hands quickly trying to pull my whip off her waist.

I released my whip from her waist to squeeze her neck, while I got on top of her. She tried to kick me off and scream, but I put my hand over her mouth. I grinned at her as she tried to wriggle free like a worm.

"Don't struggle, beautiful. It'll only hurt worse when I squeeze your guts out," I explained.

She glared at me and tried to pull my hand away from her mouth, but I merely chuckled as she failed. As I began to squeeze her neck even more, she gasped and punched my left eye, hard. Since my eye was still damaged badly, it hurt even more when she had punched it. I immediately released her, before doubling over and pressing my hand against my bleeding eye.

"You fucking bitch," I groaned at her.

She instantly crawled away from me and fell on the floor, before crawling back to a corner in the room. She held her neck and stared at me with confusion and anger.

"You miserable asshole! I helped you, I bandaged you, and yet you still attack me and try to kill me? I should've let you die!" She ranted, while furrowing her eyebrows in betrayal. "I'm such an idiot,"

I laughed at her, while wincing in pain. "You are an idiot. Did you really think I would consider you as my best friend if you healed me? I still hate you, Astrid. I don't give a fuck if you helped me or not,"

"I thought…that maybe…you would have a change of heart," She softly murmured, before glaring at me once again. "But I guess I was wrong,"

"You were dead wrong," I seethed at her.

"So what are you going to do? Are you going to kill me now?" She hissed at me, continuing to sit in the corner of the room.

"Something like that," I replied, before getting off the bed and limping towards her. I tried not to wince at each step I took, since my legs were still weak. "I want to have a little fun with you first,"

She nervously panted and glanced around the room as if to try and find an escape. When I started walking towards her, she grabbed a nearby book that was sitting on the floor next to the bed, before hurling it at me.

I tilt sideways as the book misses my head by an inch and goes flying towards the back wall. I angrily glare at her and strike my whip out, but she immediately sprints for the door and runs out of the room.

I run after her with my whip raised, swirling over my head. She makes an abrupt stop as she turns into the hallway to lock herself in the bathroom. As soon as she slams the door in my face, I curse and wildly kick the door to try to push it down.

When the door doesn't budge, I step a few inches back. Deciding to stay calm, I gave out a small menacing smirk. "You can't stay in there forever, beautiful. Sooner or later you'll have to come out. And when you do, I'm going to whip you into tiny little pieces so I can ship your body parts in a bag and send them off to Sammy,"

There was silence coming from the bathroom, but I could picture her trembling with fear in a corner.

I sadistically laughed out loud before giving the door one more good kick.

Leaving her there to drown in her own fear, I turn and make my way towards the kitchen to see what kind of stash this stupid old cabin had in it. I opened all of the cupboards, discovering different kind of stuff inside, but more importantly, food. I open the fridge last, revealing a lot of different types of soft drinks and water.

I grinned at everything. Maybe this cabin wasn't so bad after all.

I took everything I could grab; cookies, crackers, soda. I never felt so hungry in a long time. Ever since the Gaiaphage cast me out, it seemed I was losing some of my immortality. I could feel pain, feel hunger, everything that I used to feel when I was still mortal. It sort of pissed me off.

I stuffed a cookie in my mouth and opened up a can of Coke. Once I drank the entire can of Coke and ate a few more cookies, I felt content. My hunger quickly passed away.

Once I shoved the box of cookies aside, I closed all the cupboards, deciding I would save the other food for later. In the meantime, to pass my boredom, I decided to search around the cabin some more. Ever since I lost my gun, I've been trying to search for a new one.

Hopefully whoever lived in this cabin before liked to hunt.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I silently sat against the wall in the corner of the bathroom, hugging my knees up to my chest. I felt helpless and foolish as I sat alone in the chilling silence of the bathroom. I knew Drake would turn on me once he woke up, so why did I help him? Why was I so nice?

Stupid, stupid me.

Now I was trapped inside a bathroom in a small cabin that was miles away from Perdido Beach, with a sadistic predator waiting outside the bathroom so he can rip me apart with his whip. I cursed the situation I was in.

But of course, it was my fault.

I sort of wanted to just walk out of the bathroom and let Drake kill me. He was going to kill me otherwise. I deserved to die. Everything I did was the total opposite of genius. I killed my little brother because I thought that the FAYZ would end, I left Sam and the others because I thought I could handle surviving alone, and I helped Drake because I thought I felt sorry for him.

I should've just killed him.

I buried my head into my knees and gave out an anguished sigh.

I've been in the bathroom for at least an hour already. The other side of the bathroom had been deathly quiet much to my surprise. However, once I heard a faint noise, I lifted my head up to stare at the door.

Keeping very still, I heard the noise again. It seemed to sound like a small bang and running water, possibly from the sink.

I debated whether going to see what it was. Maybe Drake was distracted with something, so this was my chance to run outside. I tried to think of where I last put the keys, and I remembered I had placed them next to the front door of the cabin. Either on the couch or one of the kitchen tops.

Deciding that it would be my best chance to run out of the bathroom, I slowly got up from the tiled floor and walked towards the door, before placing my hand on the knob. I heard the running water louder this time, and I could tell that it was definitely coming from the kitchen sink.

I clenched my eyes shut and slowly turned the knob of the door, my hand trembling as I did. Once the door opened an inch, I peeked out one eye to see what was outside. The hallway was completely empty, and the only thing that I could hear was the running water.

I swallowed.

Could this be a trap to lure me out?

I quickly grabbed a pair of small scissors that was sitting next to the bathroom sink, and slowly but cautiously made my way out of the bathroom. I held the scissors close to my chest and tiptoed down to the hall, towards the kitchen. I tried to breathe soft, but all that came out was shaky breaths of air.

The water was still running into the kitchen sink, so I slowly edges out of the hallway to finally peek out into the kitchen. I immediately caught sight of Drake leaning over the kitchen sink, hanging his head over.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as to what he was doing, but my questions were quickly answered once I heard and saw him vomiting into the sink. I sighed and relaxed a little, watching as he cursed and threw up more. It was surprising to still see him vomiting. I would have thought it went away by now.

I shook away the thoughts from my head and took this chance to run since he was distracted. Once I caught sight of the car keys right next to the kitchen sink, however, my heart sank. I clenched my teeth in frustration, but decided to run to them anyway.

I quickly bolted from the edge of the hallway, before sprinting over to the keys. Seeing Drake still leaning over the sink, I grabbed the keys and started to make my way out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

However, before I even had time to get out of the kitchen, Drake casually lunged his whip forward and caught me by the waist, keeping a tight grip on me. His whip caught me by surprise, causing me to drop the keys in shock. I gave out a frustrated grunt as I tried to claw the whip with my fingernails. I was so close! So close to escaping.

While his whip held me around the waist, his other hand was resting against the kitchen table, right next to the sink. He didn't even look at me the entire time he reached out and grabbed me, to my shock. His head was still hung over into the sink.

I gave out heavy breaths of air as I stupidly stood beside him, his whip still holding me. He rinsed his mouth off, before turning off the water and glancing up at me. He seethed in anger and shook me with his whip. "What's wrong…with me?" He demanded.

"I…don't know." I kept my gaze away, fearfully trying to look at something else. But then I saw two empty cans of Coke and the cookie box sitting on the kitchen counter. My eyes widened as I turned to stare at his angry gaze. "You ate that?" I asked him, in disbelief.

"Yeah, I ate it. I was hungry you moron," Drake hissed at me. However, he winced in pain.

"Anything you eat, you throw up. There's only special kinds of food you should eat. Haven't you ever had the stomach flu before?" I explained.

"Does it look like I had the stomach flu before, you stupid bitch?" He growled, shoving me against the wall. "Tell what kind of food I should eat, then."

I inhaled in pain as my body roughly hit the wall. I glared at him with hatred. "No. Figure it out yourself," I argued back.

He clenched his teeth in anger, before grabbing me and shoving me onto the wooden floor. My body hit the ground with a soft thud, and I whimpered in pain. He raised his whip before bringing it down against my back.

I cried out as the whip pierced my skin. When the whip left my back, I pushed my hands against the floor to try and lift myself up.

He cracked his whip and whipped me a second time.

I fell back onto the floor with an anguished sob, tears threatening to spill out from my eyes. I bit my lip and gave out a muffled whimper as I tried to not cry out again. It hurt so much. I suddenly felt bad for Sam, who had to experience it over and over again. I just had to experience it twice.

Once I thought Drake was going to whip me again, instead he grabbed my arm and roughly lifted me up to slam my body against the wall once more. It hurt even worse this time, since my back was slightly bleeding from the two whips.

I sniffled and kept my head down, having several strands of my hair fall in front of my face. I struggled to keep tears from falling.

"Are you going to tell me now? Or do I have to whip you more first?" He coldly narrowed his eyes at me.

I tried to relax and recompose myself. "Sprite is good to drink whenever you have the stomach flu," I weakly muttered. "You can also eat crackers or apple sauce,"

"There's no apple sauce," Drake gave an irritated reply.

"Then you're just going to have to eat crackers and Sprite," I explained.

He muttered a curse under his breath. "That stupid Gaiaphage. He did this to me.." He glared. "I swear I'll get him back,"

I stared up at him and blinked. "Does the Gaiaphage have Petey? Is he still alive? Tell me, Drake. Please, I have to know." I demanded.

"The Gaiaphage has your little Petard," Drake scoffed. "He just isn't a person anymore. He's some sort of avatar,"

"What does that mean?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"I don't know, Astrid. Can't you figure that out by yourself? You're the genius." He curled his lip with annoyance.

"Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I know everything," I replied, frustrated.

Drake smirked. "So Astrid the Genius finally admits she doesn't know everything. Wow, what a shocker. A few months ago you would've thought differently, since you would always strut around Perdido Beach with that big over ego pretty blonde head of yours."

I felt my cheeks grow red. "I did not strut!"

"Please. You always acted as if you fucking owned the place. Your ego was over inflated enough by you thinking that you were intelligent above anyone else, but even more that you were Sam's girlfriend. That's one of the reasons I hated you," He narrowed his eyes.

I angrily pouted, but decided to keep my cool by inhaling. "There are many reasons why I hate you too,"

Drake grinned at me, before inching his face closer to mine so I could feel his hot breath against my skin. He glanced down at my neck for a brief second, almost lustfully, which sent chills running down my spine. However, his eyes instantly made their way up to my face.

"Name them," He insisted.

I swallowed. "You were, still are, the first person I was ever truly scared of. You used violence on me the first time we met and made me call Petey a retard. You burned my house down, you had my hands encased in concrete, you nearly whipped Sam to death.."

Drake gave out a cruel laugh. "Whipping Sam was the best day of my life. I couldn't get enough of that. Seeing my whip pierce his skin, hearing him scream, wiping off that smug hero face of his.."

I glared at him. "Why do you like hurting people?"

"Because, little Astrid," He took my chin in his hand so he could lift my face up to properly meet his gaze. His eyes were wild with psychopathic glee. "It gives me thrill to hurt people. It's what completes me. I love seeing my victim's terrified faces when I'm about to whip them."

I tried not to tremble, making sure I didn't look frightened. However he must've noticed, because his grin instantly widened once he saw the glint of fear in my eyes.

"I especially like hurting pretty girls like you," He admitted. "You and Diana in particular,"

I raised an eyebrow. "Diana?"

Drake scoffed. "Yeah, Diana. I hate you almost as much as I hate her. I just hate her a little bit more than you. You should consider yourself lucky,"

I stared at him in disbelief. The last thing I felt standing here with Drake was lucky. "If you hate her so much then why did you work for her?"

His eyes immediately flashed anger. "I did not work for that bitch Diana. I worked for Caine, but then I started to realize what a weakling he was. The only thing me and Caine had in common was that he fought for power. I just wanted it a little more differently than he wanted."

"Caine would always tell you what to do, and you would follow. You were called his henchman, but I thought he treated you like.." I began.

Drake narrowed his eyes at me, waiting for me to finish my sentence. His gaze was burning with fury.

"Treated you like a pet," I stupidly finished, putting emphasis into the word "pet."

He raised his whip and struck my abdomen, making a loud crack.

I cried out and pressed my body against the wall before doubling over and placing my arms around my stomach. "I'm sorry!" I quickly muttered, as soon as he was about to strike me again.

He brought his raised whip back down next to his side. "Watch your mouth," He growled at me.

I breathed, still holding my stomach which stung from the whip. I bit my lip and leaned my head against the wall, trying not to whimper in pain. I helplessly watched as he began to walk away from me, but not before stopping and reaching for the car keys that I had dropped on the floor.

Drake smirked and twirled the keys around his finger while glancing back at me. He then shoved the keys inside his pocket, to my utter disappointment. "Try escaping next time, beautiful." He murmured.

I felt myself about to explode with frustration and anger. "You're a monster," I weakly whispered.

His eyes glinted with interest. "What was that?" He walked towards me, grabbing my face in his hand once again and bringing it inches from his face.

I tried not to ignore the fact that his gaze was piercing mine, making my skin suddenly crawl. "You're a monster," I repeated, this time more fiercely.

"Thanks for the compliment," He smirked, his eyes glinting with hatred. "Now run along and go hide up in the room before I whip you again. I don't feel like playing with you right now," His smirk quickly fades, turning into an angry frown.

Deciding not to stay a few seconds longer, I squeeze out of his grip and slowly walk towards the hallway, my arms still clutching my stomach. I felt helpless and angry at the same time. As I made my way up the stairs, I suddenly broke into silent tears, desperately wanting to escape and run back to Sam.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I wasted no time into quickly locking myself inside the room. I tried to furiously wipe away my continuous tears, before climbing onto the bed and pulling a pillow towards me to bury my face in.

I sob into the pillow, wanting nothing more than to give out a frustrated scream into it.

I wanted to lay here and cry forever.

But forever didn't seem long enough in this miserable existence of this isolated cabin with the person I hated.

* * *

**A/N:**

_Thanks for the reviews ^^ Here is the next chapter! Drake's finally awake, but it doesn't seem good at all. Hope you guys like this chapter. Review please! ~  
_


	6. Chapter 6

**Drake's P.O.V.**

As the next morning came, I groggily laid on the couch downstairs, with several blankets covering half of my body. I usually slept without a shirt, so my bare upper chest was completely exposed.

I was resting on my abdomen, hanging my arm over the side of the couch. My stomach was hurting like a bitch, and despite just eating crackers and Sprite, I still felt slightly nauseous. Astrid's advice seemed to be useless.

I nearly wanted to go upstairs and whip her again.

However, whenever I whipped her, it felt…different. As much as I felt the satisfaction and excitement of hurting her, I felt another strange feeling that I never felt before. Seeing that stupid terrified and pained expression of hers whenever I whipped her made me slightly hesitate hurting her. I never even slightly hesitated hurting someone, ever. This feeling I felt made me even more sick to my stomach. Just because I felt this way made me want to whip her until there was no more skin left to whip in order to get rid of this hesitation I had.

I clenched my teeth in frustration and muttered a grunt as I lifted myself up from the couch. I ran my fingers through my hair and pressed a pillow against my abdomen to try to ease the pain of my stomach. My left eye was still swollen, even though I had bandaged it last night.

I sat up from the couch and grabbed one of the several guns I had found last night from the nearby table. I replaced the bullets for better ones that I had found, while walking towards the kitchen. It was a decent handgun, even though I still liked my old one better. There were only two handguns and three different types of hunting rifles.

I placed the gun down on the table before reaching for a can of open Sprite that I had left sitting on the counter. I only took a few sips to not upset my stomach too much.

I sat the can of Sprite back down on the counter and began to make my way back towards the couch, until Astrid almost bumped into me coming from the hallway. I glared at her as she gave out a light gasp, stepping back a few inches.

Her eyes were puffy red, and her long eyelashes were visibly wet from possibly crying. Her long blonde hair was cascading over her shoulders. She kept her gaze on my bare chest for some reason, as if she was surprised or curious.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Were you crying?" I asked, nearly disgusted.

She looked even more beautiful when she was crying. Damn it.

She sniffled, before looking away. "No.." She lied.

I gave out an annoyed grunt. I hated it when girls cried. I never knew what to do, I just wanted them to shut up and stop because it was so annoying. Crying girls was one of the major things that irritated me to no end. It was only okay for them to cry if I was hurting them.

"Stop crying," I narrowed my eyes at her.

She looked back at me, nearly surprised. However she didn't say anything.

"Why did you come down here for, anyway?" I asked her with an irritated frown.

"I wanted water," She angrily furrowed her eyebrows.

"Then go get it," I impatiently hissed at her, raising my whip. This made her flinch and quickly make her way towards the fridge. She took a bottle of water from the fridge and held it against her chest, before shutting the fridge and walking back towards the hallway, keeping her gaze down the entire time.

I coldly smirked at her, closely watching as she made her way past me and shrivel back into the hallway. Seeing her frightened face whenever she saw me gave me amusement.

As soon as she left, my left eye began to throb in pain again. I was pissed that it wasn't cured by now. Normally because of my regeneration ability my wounds would heal in an instant. However, it already knew that my abilities given to me by the Gaiaphage were getting super crappy ever since he threw me out of his cave.

"Fuck," I seethed in pain and placed my hand over my left eye as I walked into the nearby bathroom. Once I flipped the light switch on, I stared into the mirror before taking my hand off my eye. The bandage that I had put over it was bleeding through. I clenched my teeth in anger and unwrapped the bandage from around my eye. Once the bloody bandage dropped into the sink, I looked back up at the mirror.

My eye was nearly unrecognizable, since it was covered in blood. I couldn't even see my normal gray colored pupil because my entire eye was red. I muttered a curse under my breath before turning on the sink water and dowsing my left eye in it. The water hitting my eye made it hurt even worse.

I turned off the water and grabbed a towel hanging from a nearby rack. I pressed the towel against my eye and took a closer look at the mirror. I caught glimpse of my bare chest, and the words that fucking Christy had branded into my skin. I didn't particularly dislike the words, in fact all of them were true. "Psychopath," "Murderer," and "Monster,"

Those three words described me perfectly. The words were still clearly visible on my abdomen, but I could see they were already healing because of their red fading color.

I tossed the towel aside before flicking off the lights and exiting the bathroom. I headed towards the medicine cabinet, grabbing more bandages and wrapping them around my left eye again.

If my left eye didn't heal, then I would have to go get Lana and make her heal my eye.

Wherever that bitch was.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I stepped inside my room, before closing and locking the door behind me. I continued to hold the water bottle close to my chest as I sat back on the bed and opened the lid of the water. I immediately drank a few gulps of water, allowing the cold fluid to replenish my dry throat.

It was nearly twelve hours since I had water because I dreaded going downstairs and facing Drake. I knew it was only a matter of time before he got bored and decided to beat me with his whip again. However, it confused me to why he didn't kill me yet. Was he saving that for later? Or did he have other plans for me?

I fell back onto the bed, feeling confused and distraught. I closed my eyes and lay on the bed for at least what seemed to be an hour. I just wanted to get back to Sam. I felt like an idiot for even leaving him in the first place, but at the time I thought it was the best thing to do. What was I actually going to accomplish by leaving Sam?

All I knew was that I needed to somehow escape from the cabin without Drake seeing me. Running out the front door was too risky, since he was always downstairs. So that option was out. I needed to find another way to escape. There had to be another escape route..

I gave out a frustrated sigh and briefly glanced out the window of the room. The window reminded me of the method I would use for Petey whenever he threw one of his autistic tantrums. "Window Seat". It seemed to be the solution to all his problems. Too bad it didn't seem to be a solution for my problems.

I stared at it for a few minutes, deep in thought.

I wonder…

An idea popped into my head as I stared back at the blankets on the bed. A small smile crept onto my face.

I finally thought of my escape plan.

* * *

**Drake's P.O.V.**

Several hours passed, and I didn't know what to do in this stupid excuse for a cabin. I decided to rummage through the nearby closet. All I found was some hiker clothes and boots and this plain gray sweatshirt.

I grabbed the gray sweatshirt and put it on, since I had no other shirt to wear ever since my old shirt got bloody and ruined. Surprisingly, the sweatshirt fit me. Whoever lived here before was average sized, not that big of a guy like I originally thought.

I shut the closet door and went back towards the kitchen table, before grabbing the gun that I had set down and twirling it in my hands.

I gave out a bored sigh.

What the fuck should I do?

I debated whether or not to go upstairs and torture Astrid, which seemed like the best idea for amusement right now.

Maybe I should just kill her already. The only idea I had was to kill her and show her dead body to Sam. I also thought about leaving her alive for a few more days. There were a lot of things I could do to Astrid, but I couldn't decide what to do.

Finally deciding to just kill her slowly and painfully, I held the gun in my hand and began to creep up the stairs. The tip of my whip dragged along the steps of the stairs as I took each step forward. As I stopped at her door, I tried to slowly turn the knob and open the door, but I had discovered that she had fucking locked it.

Instead, I kicked the door and tried to open it with force. Once it was no use, I glared at the door. "Open the door, Astrid." I seethed.

Once there was no response coming from the room, only death silence, I decided to stop playing calm and nice. "Open the door, you stupid fucking whore! I swear to god if you don't, I'm going to shoot it down." I loudly growled, while kicking the door over and over again.

The room was still silent.

Becoming impatient, I brought the gun up to pull the trigger and fire several rounds at the door. I expected her to immediately scream, but confusion filled my face when the room still remained silent. The door had several holes in it because of the bullets that went through.

What the hell?

I kicked through the holes of the door to make the holes bigger. The wood was already old and worn down, so the holes easily increased in size as several pieces of wood from the door came crumbling down. As soon as I made a big enough hole, I stuck my arm through it and reached for the lock on the other side of the door.

As soon as the door made a "click" when I unlocked it, I pulled my arm out of the hole and violently pushed the door open.

My gaze was instantly met with an empty room with no Astrid.

I furiously glanced around the room, thinking that she might be hiding somewhere. Once I found no signs of her, my gaze caught glimpse of the window which was very much open.

"Damn it," I clenched my teeth in anger and made my way over to the ajar window. Once I peered out, I saw several blankets tied as ropes that led down the window and onto the sandy floor outside.

"I'll kill her," I breathed, before kicking the wall next to the window.

I ran my fingers through my light brown hair, frustrated. I should of never let her out of my sight. I should of obviously fucking knew that she would think of a plan to escape. That's why she was called Astrid the Genius.

I felt like such an idiot. I should've killed the bitch earlier.

Once my eyes averted back outside the window I quickly caught sight of her visible footprints along the sandy trail. Of course, she didn't have anything to cover her trail.

A sadistic smirk replaced my furious frown.

I still had her. I just needed to find her and kill her before she got to Sam.

I spun around and left the room, quickly making my way downstairs and running out the front door with the gun still in my hand. When I stepped outside I heard several howling and yelping noises that sounded like it came from coyotes.

Coyotes, which meant Pack Leader and his group of mindless puppies. Too bad they weren't my allies anymore. This time they probably wanted to kill me because I failed the Gaiaphage.

I gave out a scoff along with a psychopathic grin.

Let them try.

Taking the car keys from my pocket, I opened the driver's seat to the car and got inside. I started up the engine and wasted no time into putting my foot on the gas pedal. The car instantly roared to life and made a loud squeak as the tires sped away from the cabin.

I followed Astrid's footprints on the desert floor, ignoring the bumps and jerks the car made every time I went over a mound of dirt or rock. I hit the gas pedal to reach at least 90 miles per hour, sending the car to go speeding across the desert.

Let's see Astrid the Genius try to outrun a car.

That's if I didn't run her over first when I found her.

* * *

**A/N:**

_Oh dear, Drake's pissed. Hopefully if he finds her in the next chapter they can works things out? lol. Anyway guys thanks for the reviews! I'm really glad you like this story :) It makes me happy whenever I get a review ^^ So, leave me some more reviews for this chapter for a faster update ;)_


	7. Chapter 7

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I ran as fast as I could away from the cabin, until I was sure I was about a few miles away from it. The burning heat of the sun was starting to fade as the sun began to set. The last thing I wanted was to be wandering in the desert at night. But I knew I was still far away from Perdido Beach.

I slowed down to stop and rest, my chest breathing heavily against my white T-shirt. I nearly felt like laying down and just giving up. I was in a horrible position, but I knew if I stayed in the cabin with Drake any longer, he was going to kill me.

I just prayed that he wouldn't notice me gone. At least not until tomorrow. Otherwise, he would catch up to me easily since he had the car.

As I stared off into the distance, I saw a small area filled with trees and bushes. I felt relieved once I saw somewhere I could possibly hide instead of being in the open desert by myself. I glanced away from the trees to briefly stare at the sun going down behind the mountains.

It was such a beautiful sight, something I would admire if I wasn't running for my life.

However, it was quickly interrupted by the sound of coyotes howling nearby. My heart began to race as I stared around at my surroundings. My heart stopped as soon as I saw two coyotes stalking down the mountain. Three more followed them, and I briefly met their piercing gaze as they licked their muzzles and proceeded to approach me.

I immediately turned and started to sprint towards the trees. I didn't dare look behind me, but I could hear their pants and the sound of their paws running towards me. It would be seconds they were at my heels.

I ran so fast I felt my heart was going to burst. I nearly wanted to cry.

I didn't stop running as I entered the shade of the trees, instead I ran through them and ignored as branches scratched at my skin. My white shirt was tearing as branches poked through them and my jeans were starting to slightly rip. Before I even had time to stop when I heard the coyotes stop following me, I tripped over a rock and tumbled down the green hill.

I fell down, down. Trying to bear through the pain of my body slamming against branches and rocks, I braced myself for the end of the fall. When I got to the end of the hill, I was sent back into the sandy floor of the desert. I lay there for a few seconds, before pushing myself up and dizzily looking around.

My hand instantly flew to my aching head and I already knew I was going to have several bruises across my body.

"Ugh.." I coughed and felt relieved once I didn't see any sign of the coyotes.

However, my relief was instantly replaced with horror when I heard the faint sound of a car's engine close by. I immediately snapped my head up and saw the same dreaded black hummer heading towards me.

"No," I murmured with dread.

As the car stopped and the engine went silent, I wasted no time in running back to the rocky cliff and attempting to climb back onto the rocks. I hear the car door slam and footsteps come towards me, but the last thing I wanted to do right now was look back. I tried to climb up more rocks, despite my hands getting cut up by my carelessness.

I stopped trying to climb the rocks once I heard the click of a gun. Instead, I turned around and breathed in fear as I crawled back against the rocks I was sitting on. I was instantly met with Drake's furious gaze against mine.

"Get down here, now." He growled the last word out, before pointing the gun at me.

I didn't answer him, instead my frightened gaze looked behind him, where the previous bloodthirsty coyotes were closing in behind him, keeping as quiet as possible. I tried to open my mouth to say something but was too scared to say anything.

"Are you deaf you dumb bitch? If you don't get down here right now, I'm going to blow your pretty head off." Drake seethed with anger.

"Drake," I breathed, as the coyotes were inches away from his heels.

* * *

**Drake's P.O.V.**

"Don't try to pull that helpless shit on me, Astrid. I'm still going to kill you." I glared at her and cracked my whip against the floor.

Damn it, I wanted to whip her so bad. I half debated whether or not to climb the rocks and drag her down myself.

Before Astrid had time to open her mouth, I heard the clear sound of a animal-like growl right behind me.

I immediately whipped around and raised my gun. My eyes slightly widened when I saw that the Pack Leader and the rest of his pack were inches away from me. All of them had hostile expressions, however they stayed still not attacking.

I curled my lip and kept my gun raised. "Well, well. We meet again, mangy mutt."

The Pack Leader instantly bared his fangs at me when I insulted him. "Pack Leader did not come to kill Whip Hand. He come to give message from Gaiaphage,"

I raised an eyebrow. "A message from the Gaiaphage?" I questioned.

"Gaiaphage gives Whip Hand a second chance," Pack Leader continued.

"Oh, does he?" I lowered my gun, intrigued. I didn't really trust the Gaiaphage anymore, but I was curious to hear what he wanted me to do.

"Gaiaphage wants the human girl," The Pack Leader growled, averting his gaze up at Astrid who was probably currently trying to crawl further up the rocks. "She is sister of Nemesis."

I glared back at Astrid, who stopped trying to crawl up the rocks to stare back at us in shock. She was trembling even more now, even if she tried to not show it.

"So he wants me to bring Astrid to him?" I crossed my arms, not thrilled by the idea.

Astrid was mine.

Only mine to torture. I didn't care if the Gaiaphage wanted her.

"No. Will wait first. Until the end," Pack Leader explained, what ever that meant. "Whip Hand cannot make her his prey. If girl dies, then Whip Hand will lose his whip and powers. Gaiaphage wants her alive until the end,"

I stared at the Pack Leader for a few seconds before my eyes nearly popped out of my sockets. The Gaiaphage didn't want me to kill Astrid. He even threatened to take away my whip and the rest of my immortality if she died.

God damn it.

Now I couldn't kill the bitch.

"Fuck.." I muttered under my breath as I angrily stared at the ground.

"Whip Hand must protect her. If he is to keep his whip," Pack Leader mocked, nearly grinning his fangs at me.

I glared hatred at him. Screw all of them. Especially the stupid Gaiaphage.

When I didn't say anything, Pack Leader and his group of mutts began to back away into the darkness of the desert. Their gazes still glowing even when their bodies disappeared into the dark. "Pack Leader will meet Whip Hand again soon. For now, we leave." He licked at his fangs and turned the other way in a flash, with the others following close behind him.

I stayed silent, my glare piercing the floor.

Behind me, Astrid was also very silent. But I knew that inside she was probably thrilled at the fact that I couldn't kill her.

Fuck my life.

I heard her softly slide down the hill of rocks. She gradually landed on her feet, standing a few feet away from me. I could hear that she was hesitating to speak, but she finally had the courage to do so. "You don't have to protect me like they said. You can just let me go, please. Let me go to Sam."

I spun around and narrowed my eyes at her. "You're not going anywhere, princess." I spat as much hate as I could into the last word. "Knowing you, you'll just get yourself killed while trying to get to Sam. And if you haven't figured it out yet in your pretty little head, if the Gaiaphage even sees me not protecting you, then I'm fucked! Do you get it now, moron?" I yelled at her, frustrated.

She calmly stared at me, however she seemed like she wanted to explode with equal frustration. "Fine, I'll stay with you." She sighed, before slightly limping towards me. I could see visible cuts on her face and on her arms and legs where it tore through her shirt and jeans. She obviously took a pretty heard fall.

As I stared at her sulking figure, I curled my lip at her in anger. She was so fragile, so easy to get hurt.

When I glanced back and saw the car parked a distance away, I gave out an irritated sigh. I glanced back at Astrid and quickly grew impatient with her slow steps. I wasted no time in roughly grabbing her with my normal arm and throwing her over my shoulder.

She gave out a surprised gasp as I held onto her waist and proceeded forward towards the hummer.

"Where are we going?" She tried to position herself on my shoulder and press her hands against my back so she could raise her head from hanging down.

"The fucking car, where else?" I hissed.

"Oh." She merely replied.

When we got to the car, I opened the back door and tossed her inside, before crawling into the driver's seat of the car. I quietly sat in the driver's seat, my hands angrily clenching the wheel.

I cursed and kicked at the car.

"Damn it," I breathed.

I didn't know if I was more frustrated or angry. My dreams of hurting Astrid have been crushed. Now I had to protect her. Protect her of all things! What the fuck was the Gaiaphage thinking? I can't protect anything, that's not what I do. If it had just been an order, I would've ignored it. But no. The Gaiaphage was threatening to take my precious whip away, and the rest of my immortality.

I furiously gave out heavy gasps of air as I glared back at Astrid. She was in the car seat, not knowing what to do except hug her knees up to her chest and sit in the corner.

I debated about killing her anyway, but I quickly decided I loved my whip more than I loved the fact of killing Astrid. My whip was what completed me. Made me Whip Hand. A name that was associated with everyone's fear. Without it, I'm just Drake.

"Where are we going..?" Astrid decided to break the deathly silence by asking.

I turned away from her, still keeping my hands on the wheel. I hadn't thought of where to go. I would rather shoot myself than go to Sam, so my only other option was to continue to stay in the desert or go with Caine. Neither options were very good. I highly doubt Caine would want me, since merely hearing my name made him want to piss himself.

I didn't enjoy the fact of working with Caine again either.

"I know where to go," Astrid spoke up, as if reading my mind.

"Shut up," I growled at her. "You don't get to decide. We're going to Caine, who's probably in Perdido Beach." I finally explained, even if I regretted it.

She rolled her eyes at me. "That's what I was going to say.." She murmured.

I turned the car on and started the engine, before placing the clutch out of park and into drive. I drove the car away from the darkness of the desert and back towards the cabin. My mind was fuming at the thought of even thinking about going back to Caine.

It seemed like I was back at the beginning of the FAYZ, back in Coates.

* * *

It took at least about a fifteen minute drive to get back to the cabin, and the whole drive there was completely silent.

When I drove beside the cabin, I put the car in park and turned off the engine, taking the keys out. I gave out a frustrated sigh before briefly glancing back over my shoulder at Astrid. It was no wonder why it was so quiet, since she was fast asleep against the seats of the car. I watched as her chest softly rose and fell, she seemed content. I could tell she was exhausted from the lack of sleep.

She looked so beautiful when she slept. It made me want to strangle her with my whip. She faintly reminded me of Sleeping Beauty, which was pitiful because my Mom had always loved Sleeping Beauty as a kid. She had been her favorite princess. She even wanted to paint one of the rooms with Sleeping Beauty if she ever had a girl, which never happened.

Shaking away the memories from my head, I got out of the car and went over to the back seat to open the door. My hand went to her waist as I tried to roughly shake her awake. However, she didn't stir from her heavy sleep.

"Wake up," I shook her again, this time causing her to slowly stir in her sleep. Her eyebrows furrowed and she breathed as if not wanting to get up.

"Fuck it," I cursed, and scooped her up with my good arm. Throwing her over my shoulder once again, I shut the car door and grunted in frustration as I carried her back to the cabin.

"Where are we going now..?" I heard her softly murmur as she rested on my shoulder.

"The cabin," I merely replied.

I didn't think I could hate my life anymore than I did now.

* * *

**A/N:**

_Thanks for the reviews, guys! Even though I only got two :) Thanks Goneismyfave1 and Slytherinseeker3! I'm flattered lol. Well, this chapter was quite a surprise, don't you think? It seems that the Gaiaphage has several tricks up his sleeve for both Astrid and Drake. Leave me more reviews please! Yes? :3_


	8. Chapter 8

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I fluttered my eyes open and stretched out my arms on the bed. As I groggily turned over on the bed I realized that Drake had carried me here last night. I immediately sit up on the bed and look around.

Obviously he didn't care enough to put blankets over me since they were still hanging over the edge of the window.

I swung my legs over to the side of the bed to get up and go put on my jeans that were sitting on the floor next to the bed. After I put them on, I opened the door and slowly walked downstairs.

I heard the sound of a bag rustling as soon as I got downstairs, and I caught sight of Drake putting all of the guns into this traveler's backpack that he had probably found in one of the closets.

"What are you doing..?" I quietly asked him, before crossing my arms to try and provide myself some warmth from the coldness of the room.

He zipped the backpack once he finished loading the guns, and briefly glimpsed at me. "Finally, you're awake." He muttered. "Just get in the fucking car and stop asking questions,"

"So we're going to Perdido Beach, then?" I moved forward, irritated with his insults.

He gave out an irritated snarl as he slung the backpack over his shoulder and placed the hood of his grey sweater over his head. "Isn't that what we decided last night? Jesus fucking Christ, do you even listen whenever I talk to you? Or are you too busy obsessing over your pretty hair?"

I glared at him. "Maybe I would listen to you more if over half the things you say weren't so insulting,"

"Shut up and get in the car already," He spat, his eyes blazing with annoyance.

I frowned and made my way outside the cabin, with Drake following close behind me. It was almost as if he were closely watching me to make sure I didn't try to run away again.

"I'll drive," I decided. There was always a checkpoint near the entrance of Perdido Beach guarded by several kids to keep lookout and make sure no enemies got in. If I was driving, I knew they wouldn't ask any questions and let me in. Even if Drake was hiding his face under his hood, they would figure out it was him and then chaos would break.

Drake saw no objections to that, since he tossed me the car keys and got inside the passengers' seat.

I opened the car door and got into the drivers' seat beside Drake, before turning on the engine with the keys. I quickly pulled out of the driveway and proceeded to drive away from the cabin that we'd probably never go to again. It was nice to have decent food and drinks, and I had hoped that Drake had packed some of the food and drinks that was left.

We sat pretty much in silence the entire ride towards Perdido Beach. I knew Drake wasn't one for small talk, and I didn't really have anything to say to him. He rested back against the seat with the hood pulled over his face as he gazed out into the window.

Once we started to reach the checkpoint, a boy around the age of twelve stepped out of the booth and held an armed weapon with him. I was slightly surprised that it was only one kid keeping watch, but I instantly realized that lately kids have been slacking off work.

Drake gave out a scoff as soon as he saw the scrawny boy come out from the booth with his armed weapon being a machine gun. There was no way in hell that kid could use a gun, since he was already having trouble holding it.

Nevertheless, Drake pulled his hood down some more and made his whip crawl inside his sleeve so he wouldn't be recognized. He slouched against the chair and watched as the boy came over to his side of the window.

"Stop the vehicle. Name yourselves, now. Did King Caine authorize you two to come?" The boy began as he continued to step closer to the car.

Drake tried his hardest not to burst out laughing in the boy's face. So Caine was considered a king now? He thought Caine was pathetic before, but this reached a entire new level of stupidity.

Even I thought it was ridiculous.

"Excuse me, did you say King Caine?" I raised an eyebrow at the boy, who immediately recognized my face as soon as he walked up to the window.

"Astrid! Is it really you? Oh, wow. I heard so many stories about you, but I never got to meet you in person. So they call you Astrid the Genius right?" The boy took a closer look at me. "Wow, they really weren't exaggerating when they said how beautiful you were."

Drake curled his lip in disgust.

I blinked at him, feeling taken aback. "Um, yeah. I'm Astrid. Thanks, I guess." I replied, not really knowing what to say.

"So, where have you been this entire time? Aren't you usually with Sam, I mean you guys are still dating, right? I saw him when he left Perdido Beach to go to the lake. He seemed pretty crushed that you weren't there with him. So, I'm guessing you guys probably broke up then, huh?" The boy questioned.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "Sam left? What?"

Drake rolled his eyes, since he thought this conversation was completely useless. I knew he was itching to just kill the boy.

"Oh.." The boy frowned at me. "You didn't know he left? Yeah, he left with a whole bunch of people. Caine rules Perdido Beach now, that's what they decided."

I suddenly felt my heart sink. Why would Sam leave Perdido Beach?

"Basically all the freaks left with Sam. Like the Breeze, Dekka, that one boy called Toto, Lana, and that other guy with the super strength. But what's weird is that there's been rumors going around that Diana went with all of them too. I think they're true, since I haven't seen Diana with Caine." The boy shrugged.

My gaze instantly shot up, and Drake seemed to be suddenly interested as well.

"The hell..?" Drake muttered. It seemed like everything was getting weirder and weirder.

"Why would Diana go with him?" I asked, feeling slightly frustrated and hurt. I didn't really feel so much as jealousy, more like confused. Anyway, I knew it was a silly idea to think that Sam could possibly ever hook up with Diana.

"Nobody knows. But there's been even worse rumors going around that she might be pregnant with Caine's baby." The boy blurted out.

Drake gave out a scoff under his breath. Now that didn't surprise him. He always knew Diana was a whore.

However, I still remained surprised. "Really? Does Caine know?"

"I think he does. He just doesn't act like he knows. And nobody's brave enough to ask him. Caine can be really scary sometimes. But not as scary as…" The boy leaned over the window, causing Drake to keep his gaze down.

"Drake, the one with the whip hand." The boy nearly whispered, his body trembling as he did. "I've heard horrible stories of him. He gives everyone nightmares, including me. I hope to God that I never meet him."

I opened my mouth to say something, but just found it awkward. Here he was talking about his worst fear, and that worst fear just happened to be inches away from him. I honestly couldn't blame him, though. Everyone in the FAYZ was scared of Drake, there was no question about it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I briefly saw Drake giving off a menacing grin under his hood.

"You haven't seen him, have you? I mean, while you were out in the desert." The boy asked me.

I shook my head. "No. Luckily, I haven't." I lied.

The boy breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that's good." He then averted his gaze over to Drake, who was sitting beside me. "You're sort of quiet, aren't you? I don't think I've ever seen you around before. But then again, I can't see your face when your hiding it under that hood."

Drake sat still, but his whip itched to strangle the kid for talking so damn much. His whip began to uncurl inside his sleeve, threatening to reveal itself.

I immediately decided to speak out before Drake acted out, but the boy interrupted me.

"It's alright, though." The boy laughed. "Since you're with Astrid, you must be her friend. So quiet or not, you're probably a nice person."

"Yeah…" Drake managed to mutter, despite it sounding deeply irritated. I was pleased that he managed to contain himself, though.

"Anyways, you wanted to pass though. I'm really sorry about this, but I don't think it's a really good idea to go to Perdido Beach. You guys should head over to the lake, since that's were Sam's at. I'm positive that he's waiting for you, Astrid." The boy gave me a reassuring smile.

I bit my lip to try to keep from frowning. I really wanted to go to Sam, but I knew I couldn't. "I can't right now. I needed to get to Perdido Beach." I tried to think up of a good excuse. "I, um, left some of my belongings there."

"Oh, I could get it for you. It's just, well, I don't really think Caine would be too happy with you staying in Perdido Beach. And he'll probably be mad at me if I just let you guys go in without his permission." The boy calmly explained.

"I'm sure he'll understand, I'll make sure you aren't punished-" I tried to insist.

However, the boy merely shook his head. "I'm really sorry, Astrid. I'm going to have to put my foot down on this one. You're aren't going to be allowed in, and I think it's better for you to go to Sam. Imagine how upset he'll be if he found out that you went to Perdido Beach first, anyway?"

I silently tried not to explode in anger. I wasn't Sam's property, and everyone was acting as if I was. If I wanted to go somewhere, then I could go.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Drake immediately beat me to it.

"Alright, fuck this." He spoke, which alarmed the boy.

The boy quickly raised his gun as a warning to Drake if he tried anything, but soon stared in horror as Drake cracked his whip out and placed it around the boy's neck to strangle him.

"Oh my god! I-it's you!" The boy realized, as Drake's piercing gaze met his. "Please! Oh, god! Please don't kill me!" The boy sobbed as he begged, but Drake just tightened his grip around his neck.

"You should've just let us through when you had the chance, now you're going to be sliced until there's nothing left of you but shredded skin," Drake grinned.

The boy trembled even more, peeing his pants a little. This made Drake grin even more with psychotic glee.

"Drake, let him go!" I insisted, but he ignored me.

Drake threw the boy against the ground, who proceeded to crawl away and yell for help. His cries for help were instantly silenced by his screams of agony as Drake whipped him over and over again.

"Drake, stop!" I yelled again, this time opening the car door and running over to the other side of the car. The poor boy's cries for mercy were too much for me.

Drake continued to whip him against his back, which was currently covered in blood and left severely scarred. The boy stopped sobbing as soon as his head fell unconscious on the floor due to the loss of blood and immense pain.

I stopped inches away from Drake, my eyes threatening to spill tears as I stared at the unconscious boy on the floor covered in blood.

Drake stopped whipping him, before kicking him against his side to roll him over. He raised his head and glared at me, his whip covered in the boy's blood as it rested against his side.

"You didn't have to do that," I choked out, my voice laced with anger and sadness.

"Get over it. At least I didn't kill him," Drake sneered at me, before pushing past me and making his way towards the car.

I sympathetically stared at the unconscious boy on the floor. Even if Drake didn't kill him, he was going to die from blood loss or infection if he didn't get to a doctor soon.

"We should take him to Dahra," I quickly suggested.

"We're not going to fucking take him to go see Dahra," Drake narrowed his eyes at me.

"But if we don't, he'll die-" I began to walk towards the boy.

"Astrid, if you take one more step closer to him, I'm going to finish him off and kill him myself. I said fucking leave him." Drake hissed at me, his whip beginning to slither forwards.

I glared at him. He was probably the most horrible person who has ever walked this planet. I couldn't comprehend what made Drake so unbelievably evil.

I begrudgingly turned away from the boy and slowly made my way back to the car where Drake was impatiently waiting. I climbed inside the drivers' seat as Drake got in beside me. He was muttering curses under his breath, something about me being so damn difficult.

I continued to drive forward past the checkpoint, and into Perdido Beach. I was still slightly uneasy from watching the boy being nearly whipped to death. My hands were trembling with frustration and I tried to take small breaths in order to calm myself down.

I drove through several of the roads in Perdido Beach, until I reached Sherman Avenue. I parked the car beside one of the houses, before glancing around and seeing a couple kids walking up the street, eyeing the car a few times, but then looking back and paying no attention to it. The houses on the street all looked abandoned and ransacked. Most of the windows of the houses were cracked or broken, and there was trash on the front yards.

Drake pulled his hood up and peered out the window. "This place looks like shit. Not like it already did when I first came here," He snorted and opened the car door.

For once, I agreed with him.

I got out of the car and walked up the street with Drake, who had his face hidden underneath his hood and had his whip retreated inside his sweatshirt. As I continued to walk up the street, I heard kids murmuring my name or wondering what I was doing there.

Once we passed Sheridan Avenue into San Pablo Avenue, we started to reach the town hall, where Caine presumably resided.

More kids started to pop out and make a circle around the both of us, which made me slightly uncomfortable. Some of them were smiling, happy to see me, and others were not so happy. The last thing I wanted was to cause attention, but it seems that's what I managed to do.

"So what's our plan, exactly?" I murmured, glancing at Drake.

He curled his lip at all of the kids who were whispering and talking amongst themselves. "We demand to see Caine, wherever the hell he is." He replied.

When I looked around to ask someone where Caine might be, a familiar face popped out from the crowd and beamed at me. As I turned my attention towards him, I instantly recognized him as Quinn.

I was both happy and confused to see him there. I thought he might have gone with Sam, for sure.

"Astrid! Boy, am I happy to see you." Quinn grinned at me, and he immediately went towards me so we could embrace.

"It's nice to see you too, Quinn." I returned his smile. "This place has sort of changed ever since I left, huh?"

"Yeah man, it sure has. Where in the world have you been, anyways?" He questioned.

"You don't want to know," I sighed. "I just wanted to go off by myself for a little while, but that was probably not a good idea to do, now that I think about it."

"Well, I'm glad you decided to come back. I'm sort of surprised to see you here, actually. I thought you might've gone to the lake with Sam. He seemed really disappointed when he didn't see you anywhere before he went to the lake with the others," Quinn explained.

"I know. I thought you went with Sam, too." I raised an eyebrow.

Quinn sheepishly shrugged. "Yeah, but I told him that I wanted to stay because of my fishing business."

"Oh," I blinked at him, suddenly remembering that Quinn had his fishing business.

"So are you planning to head to the lake?" He asked.

"Maybe, I'm not sure. Right now, I want to talk to Caine first. Do you know where he is?" I decided to ask, since Drake was somewhat growing impatient beside me.

Quinn seemed taken aback over the fact that I wanted to speak with Caine. "Uh, I think he's probably inside the town hall. But, why do you want to talk with him in the first place?"

"I just need to ask him something," I quickly decided.

"Alright," Quinn shrugged, deciding that my answer was sufficient enough. Anyway, he knew not to get involved with important people like Sam, Lana, Edilio, and Astrid. He was only a fisher, after all.

"See you later, Quinn.' I slightly waved, and he returned the wave. "Good luck, Astrid." He spoke.

I proceeded to make my way towards the town hall, ignoring most of the comments or stares that I continued to receive from most of the kids around the plaza. Drake followed close behind me, still keeping his face hidden.

When we got to the entrance of the town hall, I took a step forwards, but not before I was met with a young boy popping out of nowhere from using his invisibility camouflage power. He appeared inches away from me, which made me nearly jump back with surprise.

I slightly recognized him as being one of the kids who worked with Caine. His name was Bug? I think.

"No entries are allowed inside the town hall, unless Caine…um, I mean King Caine authorized it," He glared at me.

"I don't care what Caine wants," I argued. "I just have to talk to him."

"Ask him what? Caine could kill you in a second if he wanted," Bug threatened. "You should just run back to the lake with your little boyfriend, Sammy."

I clenched my teeth in anger as I tried to keep myself from yelling at him. I had to keep my anger under control, and keep calm as much as possible.

Drake was still behind me, curling his lip in annoyance. He should've expected that Bug would get in the way, like he always did.

"Can't you just tell Caine that I'm here to talk to him? He might change his mind-" I explained.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Because you're so important." Bug quickly interrupted. "Astrid the Genius. The one who everyone loves, because you're so special." He waved me off.

"Listen-" I angrily began to say, but was quickly cut off by Drake lunging out at Bug and catching him by the throat with his whip.

Bug gave out a surprised yelp as he was shoved against the wall and picked up by the whip around his neck. He stared at Drake with frightened eyes. "Oh man, Drake. Ha, it's you. Come on, we're still friends, right?" He tried to greet him with a frightened smile, which was returned by Drake's sadistic smile.

"You're such a pathetic little shit. I would've thought you were dead by now. I guess Caine decided to keep you alive since you kiss his ass all the time," Drake laughed.

Bug squirmed against the whip, which tightened around his neck. He clenched his eyes tight and opened them, desperate for an escape. "No! I only pretend to! Caine's an idiot, I never liked him! I liked you way more than Caine, I swear!"

Drake narrowed his eyes at Bug. "Shut the fuck up, Bug. Don't try to cheat your way out of death. That kind of shit you pull might work for Caine, but it doesn't work for me." He sneered.

"Please don't kill me! I'll do anything!" Bug struggled to break free. "I promise! I'll take you to Caine!"

"Where is he, then?" Drake hissed, growing impatient by the second.

Bug quickly pointed up the fancy looking stairs. "Up the stairs, in the biggest room. That's where his office is."

"You better not be lying to me, Bug." Drake squeezed his neck even tighter, staring at him with his icy cold gaze.

"Why would I lie to you?" Bug struggled to breathe, but still managed to keep on a fake friendly tone.

"I've let you live too many times. I should just kill you right now," Drake curled his lip.

"No..!" Bug choked out, his lips now turning a purple color. His eyes almost seemed like they were going to bulge out.

I bit my lip and decided to speak out. "Let him go, Drake. He's not worth it," I muttered. Sure, Bug was probably a greedy, lying, individual. But he was still a kid. He probably had parents or siblings who cared about him back outside the FAYZ. He shouldn't have to die.

Bug went silent and stopped sobbing for a few moments to stare at me and Drake, confused. He seemed to have now realized how odd it was for me and Drake to be together.

"You're right. He isn't worth shit." Drake snorted, and surprisingly he weakened his grip around his throat.

Bug breathed in heavy gasps of air as he finally received some amount of oxygen. "Oh, thank you! The both of you! Screw Caine, I'll do anything you guys tell me to do."

Drake scoffed. "Really? That's nice, because right now you're going to come with me to see Caine." He coldly smirked.

Bug's eyes widened. "W-what?" He tried to say something else, but was quickly interrupted by being thrown on the floor and Drake dragging him across the floor by his neck with his whip.

"Come on," Drake gave me a sideways glance, while holding a withering Bug.

I blinked at him and slowly followed him up the stairs into Caine's office. The doors were white, and the handles of the door were gold. Only Caine would insist to live in luxury.

Drake didn't even bother to knock or open the door, instead he kicked it open. With Bug still dragging along behind him, he entered the room and came face to face with an alarmed Caine, who immediately sat up from his chair and gave Drake a bewildered stare. He remained strong and confident, however I knew there was obviously fear in his eyes.

"You," Caine spat, as he narrowed his eyes at Drake. "How did you get in?" He gulped, averting his gaze towards Bug.

Drake released Bug and tossed him aside. Bug stood up and stared at Caine, who appeared to be very angry. "I'm sorry, Caine! I tried to keep them out, really!" He cried, before running to hide behind me.

I gave Bug a disgusted look. I couldn't believe how much of a coward he was. One minute he was talking bad about Caine, and once he was actually faced with Caine, he pretended like he was still his loyal servant. I nearly regretted letting him live.

"Don't piss yourself, Caine. I didn't come here to kill you." Drake gave an irritated reply.

Caine narrowed his eyes at Drake, keeping his hands ready to use his power in case Drake tried to do anything. "What do you want?" He demanded.

"I just want to talk, Caine. Can't we do that? Just like old times," Drake gave him a menacing smile, while curling the tip of his whip.

Caine hesitated to reply, but then his gaze averted to me once he caught sight of me. "Why is Astrid with you?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Is this some sort of plan that the Gaiaphage told you to do?"

"I don't work for the Gaiaphage anymore," Drake hissed.

Caine blinked, surprised. "So, now that you don't work for that hellish god, you came back to work for me again, is that it?" He glared. Although Drake was a sadistic psychopath, he knew he was a powerful henchmen, or rather ally, to have. However, he still hated him.

"I won't work for you, Soren." Drake spat. "I just want revenge on the Gaiaphage. And I know you want him gone as much as I do,"

"So you're saying that you want us to work together to get rid of the Gaiaphage?" Caine questioned, intrigued. He was definitely considering it. There was no way just one person could get rid of the Gaiaphage. And having Drake on his side would just make him more powerful as a ruler. No one would stand in his way, not even Sam.

"Yeah, yeah, did you not just hear me?" Drake coldly glared. He couldn't believe that he was actually asking Caine to work together when he was itching to kill him.

Caine raised an eyebrow. He knew he couldn't trust Drake, but for the meantime he decided it was a good idea to have him as an ally. Drake was the biggest fear in the FAYZ, next to the Gaiaphage. Having Drake as an ally made him have one less frightening enemy to worry about. "Alright, Merwin. You've got yourself a deal," He calmly agreed.

"Good," Drake replied.

"I still don't get why Astrid is with you. I thought you hated her. Well, actually, you hate everybody, never mind. So is she your hostage or something?" Caine sarcastically asked, while glancing at me.

Drake was about to say something, but I quickly interrupted.

"It's a long story," I admitted.

"How did you guys get in? I thought I had a kid over at the checkpoint-" Caine started to irately say, but stopped when Drake raised his whip that was still covered with dried blood.

"I roughed him up a bit," Drake casually replied with a smirk.

"He's not dead yet. Maybe you should send someone to get him?" I suggested.

"Nah. That kid was useless, anyway. Since he failed me, I'm going to leave him for dead." Caine shrugged.

I gave out a frustrated sigh. I forgot how mean Caine could be as well, even if he wasn't as evil as Drake. I watched as Caine turned his attention away from me to glance at Bug, who was still quietly hiding behind me using his camouflage ability.

"Bug, don't pretend I can't see you. Stop cowering behind Astrid and show them to their rooms," Caine rubbed the bridge of his nose with annoyance.

"Yeah, Bug." Drake sadistically grinned at him, while raising his whip.

Bug immediately showed himself and dipped his head towards Caine. "Uh, yeah Boss!" He replied.

Caine glared at him.

"I mean, yes, your majesty!" Bug nervously corrected.

I raised an eyebrow at Bug, before following him and Drake out of Caine's office. I had mixed feelings about the whole monarchy that Caine had over Perdido Beach. I wondered how he managed to make decisions and rule things around here. I really wanted to find Albert and talk to him about starting up the Council again, but I knew it would probably be a waste of time, since Caine wouldn't agree to it.

Then again, I don't think I'll be following by Caine's rules too much for the meantime that I was here.

* * *

**Caine's P.O.V.**

I silently watched as Drake and Astrid left the room, confusion still written on my face.

Working with Drake felt like the beginning of the FAYZ all over again. However, I knew that I had eliminated one less threat by working with him. I was using Penny to scare the kids into doing what I wanted as a replacement for Drake. Penny could definitely be frightening, but she was nowhere near as frightening as Drake.

I wasn't scared of Penny. But Drake, even though I would never admit it, I was scared of a little. And I wasn't easily scared.

Penny is a sick individual. She makes nightmares come into reality.

Drake is the nightmare. He reaches a whole new level of twisted and psychopathic. He is the definition of evil itself.

Which is why I couldn't comprehend why he was keeping Astrid around. He wasn't even treating her like a hostage, more like someone who accompanies a person. I would've thought he would've killed her by now. However, I was glad he didn't.

Astrid was an important person to have as well. I could definitely use her. I knew Sam wouldn't be too happy if he ever found out she was staying here. Likewise, I wasn't too happy with Diana staying with him. So I guess we were even.

Sam has Diana, but I have Astrid.

And I planned on keeping her here for a while.

* * *

**A/N:**

_Yay! Sam has Diana, and Caine has Astrid! So they're both even, and everyone's happy! Well, not really. ^^' So, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I made it longer than the others. Review and tell me what you think so far. Thanks everyone! :)_


	9. Chapter 9

**Drake's P.O.V.**

I stepped inside the room that Caine had provided for us across the hall. The room had two queen sized twin beds at each corner of the room. I was glad that it wasn't a one king sized bed anymore.

The room was slightly worn down, with the wall paint already ripping.

The last thing I worried about was the room, though. I was just itching to cause some chaos around Perdido Beach. And that's exactly what I planned to do.

I glanced over at Astrid, who was silently sitting on one of the beds. She was staring at the floor, and I knew she was thinking of a plan. That intelligent brain of hers was always spinning. She stood quiet for a few moments before finally speaking.

"I don't trust Caine," She spoke.

I rolled my eyes as I glanced away from her. "No one does," I snorted. "That doesn't mean we can't have him as an ally. Believe me, I hate Caine. As much as I want to…" I clenched my teeth in anger as my whip began to tremble. "Skin him alive, I know I can't. Not yet. Not until we get rid of the Gaiaphage,"

She winced as soon as my whip began to shake with anger.

I made my way over to the bathroom to casually look at my figure in the mirror. My eye was slowly starting to get better, and when I peeled the bandage away, it seemed that my eye was nearly fully healed. The only thing that seemed off was the way my pupil looked slightly bloodshot.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Astrid move from the bed to stand up and make her way across the room, towards the door. I stopped staring at my eye to avert my cold gaze towards her, as she proceeded to walk towards the door.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" I slowly growled.

She stopped in her tracks, and nervously stared at me. As she regained confidence, her gaze turned into a fierce glare.

"I'm going out to look for Quinn and Albert," She softly explained.

I snickered at her, before making my way closer towards her. A menacing grin appeared upon my face. Her gaze wavered, but she remained in the same spot that she was standing on.

"No you're not. You're going to stay here, where I can see you. I'm not that stupid. If I let you go out, you're obviously going to run back to Sam." I snarled.

She fell at a loss for words as I smirked at her, obviously she knew that I was right. Her lip trembled as she glared at me with hatred. "So you're just going to keep me locked up in this room then?" She asked in disbelief.

"Pretty much," I casually shrugged.

"But I need to eat! And drink-" She began, but I interrupted her.

"So what? I'll bring you food and water every so often. Of course, I'll make sure to tie you to the bed every time before I leave," I smirked.

Astrid trembled with anger, her eyes clearly threatening to spill tears. "You're horrible…" She breathed.

"So they tell me," I raised an eyebrow, not caring what she thought about me.

She went to go angrily sit back on the bed closest to the door, but I crossed my arms and glared at her. "By the way, you might not want to get so used that bed, since you'll be sleeping on the one closest to the wall." I pointed at the bed furthest from the door that was against the wall. "That way I'll hear you if you try and escape in the middle of the night." I explained.

I gave out an amused, sadistic, laugh as she growled at me.

* * *

**Astrid's P.O.V.**

I sat on the bed against the wall, hugging my knees to my chest and sulking. I stayed silent as Drake sat on the bed across from mine, which was closest to the door. He was busy putting extra pistols in his guns that he had grabbed from the cabin.

I sighed as I tried to think of ideas to try and somehow escape from the room.

If only I could find another exit, like a window or something…

That's it. A window.

I glanced around the room, trying to keep my gaze away from Drake to try and not seem so suspicious. Seeing no windows around the room, I was about to give up when suddenly I caught sight of a window in the corner of the bathroom that was straight ahead.

I bit my lip to hide a small smile. Escaping from the bathroom seemed like the best idea.

I casually turned my gaze back at Drake, who still had his attention on his guns. I slowly got up from the bed and began to make my way towards the bathroom, hoping not to catch Drake's attention.

However, my hope fell as soon as I heard a click of the gun.

"Where are you going?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

I stopped and turned my head to stare at him. "The bathroom," I quickly replied. "I'm allowed to go to the bathroom, aren't I?"

Drake scoffed and glanced back down at his guns. "Go then,"

I breathed a silent sigh of relief and practically ran towards the bathroom before shutting the door behind me. I stared at the door for a few seconds and tried to keep myself calm. My body was slightly shaking and I felt nervous. I desperately wanted to escape.

I turned around and stared up at the window. It was somewhat small, but I was pretty sure I could fit through it. My problem was reaching it. The window was at least six feet high up.

I gave a discouraged groan and climbed onto the toilet seat of the bathroom. I stood up on the toilet and tried to reach the window using my left arm. I stretched my arm as much as possible but I still couldn't reach it.

I grunted in frustration and sat back down on the toilet to try and think of another method to try and reach the window. Maybe I could make something to stand on so I can reach the window?

I grabbed every towel that I could find inside the bathroom and stacked them on top of one another. I climbed up on the pile of towels and tried to reach the window, but again it was no use.

I grabbed all of the towels and set them on the toilet before climbing on top of all of them and trying to reach the window once again. I leaned my body towards the window and stretched my hand to try and open it. Once my fingers brushed across the handle of the window, I pulled it with my index finger and pulled the window open.

I pulled away and held onto the wall to try and keep my balance. I took in another several deep breaths and stared back at the window.

I stood back on the towels and tried to reach for the window with all my might. I practically jumped for the window and held onto the bottom of the window with my arms. My body hit the wall as I jumped, causing me to feel pain against my abdomen. I dangled from the window and winced as I tried to pull myself up.

"What the fuck is taking you so long?"

I froze as soon as I heard Drake's voice outside the bathroom.

I stood silent for a few moments, trying to think of something to say.

"Answer me, Astrid." He said again, his voice seeming more deadly.

"I'm…on my period," I stupidly replied, silently cursing myself after I said it. I couldn't think of anything else to say, and it seemed like the most reasonable answer to say. Even though I hadn't had my period for months because of the lack of food and starvation.

He didn't reply, instead I heard an amused and disgusted scoff coming from outside of the bathroom.

Once everything went silent again, I pushed myself up with my arms and lifted myself up over the window. Once I got on top, I dangled my foot out of the window and briefly looked down. I was rather high up, about three stories high. I was grateful, however, that there was a balcony down below me.

I took one glance back at the bathroom before carefully swinging my other leg out of the window and slowly climbing down on the balcony. I saw several kids walking past the building and curiously staring at me as I made my way down to the balcony from the window.

Once I got down to the balcony, I easily dropped down to the ground and positioned myself back on my feet as I landed a little lopsided. I stared up at the open bathroom window and looked both ways as I stood next to the Town Hall building. I just prayed that I wouldn't run into Caine or anyone else on his side.

I tried to fit in with everyone else and tried not to let people notice me. The last thing I wanted to do was to cause a scene. I practically ran down the streets and headed towards along the beach. The beach seemed quiet and relaxing as usual, however my face brightened once I spotted Quinn laying down on the sand.

"Quinn!" I called.

He lifted his face up and glanced back at me. His face instantly lit up as well.

"Astrid! What's up?"

As soon as we walked towards each other, I stood silent for a few seconds, breathless.

"Are you alright?" He raised an eyebrow at me, worried.

I nodded. "I'm fine," I replied. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm leaving. I'm going to the lake with Sam,"

He smiled at me. "I figured you would. Sam's going to be happy to see you again,"

"I wish you could come with me," I admitted.

"Yeah, but I have to stay here. I have my fishing business, and I know I won't be of any use to Sam. Me and him used to be close friends, but now that he's the golden hero of the FAYZ, and I'm a nobody, I know I'll just be getting in his way." Quinn explained, sadly glancing down at the sandy floor.

I blinked, slightly surprised that Quinn felt that way. "Don't say that. You aren't a nobody, Quinn. Sam still considers you as one of his close friends. Of course you won't get in his way."

"I don't know. That's just my opinion," Quinn shrugged.

"Perdido Beach is just getting too dangerous right now. Especially with Drake back…" I sighed, but then I instantly regretted my words once I realized Quinn probably didn't know yet.

"What? Drake's back?" Quinn's calm face instantly turned into a horrified expression.

"Yeah. He's…working with Caine again." I spoke.

"Caine is working with Drake again? Why? I thought that Drake betrayed him or something.." Quinn replied, baffled.

"Yeah, but Caine doesn't care." I scoffed. "I'm just worried that they might team up against Sam."

"That could mean disaster." Quinn agreed, his face growing pale.

"That's why I have to go warn Sam," I quickly explained, my voice full of determination.

"Alright, well be careful, Astrid." Quinn's eyebrows furrowed with worry.

"I will," I promised, before pulling Quinn into an embrace. We hugged for a while, and right before we were going to pull away from each other, we heard a voice behind us. The last voice I wanted to hear and dreaded hearing.

"Aww, isn't that sweet. Sorry to interrupt your little love fest so early before you go and run off to Sammy."

I heard Drake growl behind us.

"Drake," Quinn breathed in fear.

Before I had time to turn around and gasp, Drake snapped his whip up to strangle my neck and bring me closer towards him. He held me inches away from my face until I could feel his hot breath up against my ear. Feeling afraid, I tried not to open my eyes. But as he jerked my neck up, I opened my eyes with a gasp.

His expression looked absolutely terrifying. His eyebrows were furrowed in anger, and his gaze stared at me with hatred. His entire face was fuming with anger.

"Next time you want to use the bathroom, I'm going to have you piss in a jar, you fucking bitch."

I cried out as his whip tightened around my neck.

"Let her go!" I heard Quinn bravely say, although his voice was clearly trembling in fear.

Drake's head instantly shot up to glare at him. He curled his lip in anger as he tossed me aside and I hit the floor.

"What did you say, surfer boy? I didn't quite catch that," Drake sneered, walking closer to a frightened Quinn. He roughly grabbed him by the collar of his shirt before staring him right in the eyes.

"I…I said…let her go," Quinn said again, trying to avoid his gaze.

Drake gave him an amused smirk. "Well, well. It looks like the surfer boy actually has some balls,"

I winced and got up from the floor to turn my attention on Drake and Quinn. "Don't hurt him, Drake!" I pleaded.

"Shut up," Drake shot me a sideways glare, before bringing his whip up and cracking it against Quinn's shoulder.

Quinn cried out in pain, and fell onto the floor. Drake continued to whip him again, this time against his back.

Once Quinn started to scream, I ran towards Drake. "Please, stop! Stop hurting him! I promise I'll never run away again, just stop!" I yelled.

Once I said that I wouldn't run away again, Drake stopped his whip in mid-air. He slowly brought his whip back down and glared at the cowering Quinn, before turning his glare back at me.

"If you promise to never run away ever again, then I'll stop hurting him." Drake narrowed his eyes.

"I promise," I helplessly breathed.

Drake snorted, glancing at Quinn one more time. "Worthless fuck," He mumbled, and made his way over to me.

I sadly stared at Quinn who was still on the floor, but was now starting to get up. I gasped as Drake grabbed my waist with his good arm and threw me over his shoulder. I slightly struggled against him and stared at Quinn one more time.

"I'm sorry, Astrid." I heard him regretfully say.

As Drake carried me away and back into the center of the Town Hall, I tried to ignore the stares and gasps we got as kids stared at us with a shocked expression. All of them knew Drake and I, and they knew as well as we did that if Drake was carrying me across his shoulder, my fate wasn't very good.

I tried to hold my tears in as I struggled against him some more.

"Stop struggling, you bitch." Drake hissed.

"Let go of me! I can walk," I began to kick and squirm.

Once we went back inside the Town Hall and back into our room, Drake shut the door behind us and shoved me off his shoulder.

I hit my knee against the floor with a soft thud as he roughly put me down. I held in a whimper of pain as I got up from the floor and began to walk towards the bed.

However, he immediately grabbed me by the arm and violently tossed me against the wall.

As my back made impact with the wall I gasped. My back would probably be bruised later on, but that was the last thing I was worried about. I tried to get away from the wall, but Drake shoved me back into it yet again.

"You little traitor. Always kissing Sam's ass just because he's your stupid boyfriend," Drake sneered at me.

"How can I be a traitor when I was never loyal to you in the first place!" I hissed back at him.

He brought his hand up and smacked me across the face, hard.

I cried out in pain and held my throbbing cheek with tear-filled eyes.

Drake grabbed my hand and brought it back against the wall, while twisting it in his grip. He brought his body against mine as he slammed me against the wall once again.

"You're hurting me…!" I sobbed, as he continued to twist my wrist.

"I don't give a shit. The Gaiaphage only said that I wasn't allowed to kill you. He said nothing about not being able to hurt you," He angrily hissed.

"God, I hate you!" I screamed as I tried to squirm away from him.

"Then hit me!" Drake smirked. "Hit me, I dare you."

I continued to stare at him with fear and hatred.

"Hit me, you bitch! Fucking hit me!" He shook me.

"I hate you!" I punched him against the chest.

"Harder!" He sneered, glaring at me.

"I hate you!" I punched him as hard as I could, over and over against his chest until I was practically banging my fists.

He chuckled at me. "Atta girl," His voice grew more softer as I breathed and angrily stared at his chest. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He brought his hand up to my face and gently wiped away my tears that were falling down my throbbing cheeks. "It's never bad to take your anger out on something. To really lose yourself. Release all your anger out,"

I shut my eyes and pulled my face away from his hands. As he took a step back from me, I slowly fell back onto the floor and began to cry, hugging my knees close to my body and burying my face into my knees.

As I continued to cry, I heard Drake give out a scoff as he walked away from me and left the room. The door closed behind me and I heard a lock click on the door. As soon as he left, I got up and climbed onto the bed, sobbing into the pillow and hugging the blankets.

My sobbing started to quiet down as I sniffled into the pillow and closed my eyes, letting the softness of the mattress take me into a deep sleep.

* * *

As I was sent into a world of darkness, my vision cleared up as I dreamt of a meadow. I was standing in the meadow, with a lake out into the distance. I wondered if the lake is where Sam and the others were.

As I focused onto a figure in the distance, I curiously stepped closer as I stepped across the soft grass and flowers. When I got closer, the figure immediately revealed itself to be Sam.

He was calmly staring out into the distance, while just standing there. He turned his gaze towards me, and his face instantly softened. A smile lit up his face.

I felt my heart flutter with happiness as we stared at each other. I quickly ran towards him and embraced him. Once I did, He embraced me back and twirled me around for a few seconds before putting me back down.

"I missed you so much," He murmured.

"I missed you too, Sam. I'm so sorry I've been so distant to you lately," I buried my head into his shoulder.

"Why haven't you came to the lake yet?" He asked me.

"I can't-" I tried to say, but stopped myself once I felt his arms no longer around me. Instead he was standing several feet away from me now, with a frown on his face. The grass and flowers around me started to wilt, and everything grew darker.

"Don't you love me anymore?" He sadly spoke.

"Of course I do!" I gasped.

"Don't you love me anymore?" He repeated, and this time his voice echoed throughout the area.

"Don't you love me, anymore, Astrid?" A more sinister voice spoke.

I turned around and saw Drake staring at us with a menacing grin on his face. His expression seemed darker than usual, and his whip appeared to be larger now, reaching towards us with blood on it.

I stepped away from the whip and quickly stared at Sam, who had disappeared. I tried to look around for him, but to my horror I found him behind me, on the floor with a bloody back.

Drake's sadistic laugh echoed throughout the area as he cracked his whip across Sam's back and whipped him over and over again. Sam stayed silent, instead his head was drooped down, almost like he was dead.

I tried to scream, but I couldn't even hear my own voice. I just felt my cheeks wet with tears.

The area around us changed, and instead Sam was tied to a pole, being horribly tortured by Drake. This time he was screaming in agony as the whip hit him continuously, seeming like a thousand times. His face seemed unrecognizable as his entire face was bloody.

"Why won't you help me, Astrid?" He cried out.

I shut my eyes to try and avoid the horrible scene. "Stop! Just stop!" I bring my hands up to cover my ears and fall onto the floor, shaking my head to try and wake myself up from the bloody nightmare I was having.

The vision went away as I briefly found myself back on the bed, wincing in distress. The only thing I heard was the door opening and closing from inside the room. As I fell asleep again, my nightmare visions continued.

This time it was me who was being tortured. I was being violently whipped by Drake as he laughed at my bleeding body on the floor. The pain was unbearable, and I helplessly tried to crawl away.

I couldn't even breathe, since I was drowning in my own pool of blood.

I saw Petey in the distance, staring at me with his usual solemn expression. However, he did something I never expected him to do.

"Why did you kill me, Astrid? I thought you loved me." He spoke with no emotion.

"I'm sorry Petey! I'm so sorry…" I tried to cry, but instead all that came out was a strangled choke because I started to choke on my own blood.

I felt a whip coming down on my back once again.

That's when I screamed in agony. I screamed like there was no tomorrow. At first I didn't hear myself scream, but then the screaming got louder as I started to hear voices.

"Hey…"

"Shut up, already…"

"Astrid, wake up!"

The voices got louder and the vision disappeared as I opened my eyes and saw that I was back on the bed. I took a large inhale and gasped against the bed, while whimpering and staring at the dark figure who was in the dark room.

"Sam…?" I helplessly croaked out.

"No, it's me." I heard the voice plainly say.

Then I realized the voice was from Drake. Not exactly the most comforting person to see after I had just dreamed about him torturing me.

I tried to say something, but all that came out was a sob. My entire body was trembling, and I couldn't tell if it was because I was frightened or cold because of the chilly room. My forehead was the only thing that felt hot and sweaty.

"Shh, I'm here. It was just a nightmare,"

To my surprise, Drake softly spoke. I had to blink twice to make sure I still wasn't in a dream. I thought I would never hear him speak that soft and reassuring like he did now.

He got on the bed with me and started to brush strands of my hair away from my face as he stroked my cheek.

The room was pitch black, so I couldn't quite make out anything. The only thing I saw was his body next to mine. His whip protectively curled around my waist as he brought me closer to him. I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face against his shoulder.

"Drake," I breathed.

I trembled as I tried to get rid of the horrible nightmare I had out of my head. I held in a sob as he wrapped his other arm around me.

"Shh…" He whispered into my ear, bringing his fingers up to my back and sending light trails up and down to reassure me.

My body began to relax as I closed my eyes once again. My head continued to rest on his shoulder as he softly stroked my back. His bare chest felt incredibly soft and warm against mine, and his skin felt smooth as I rested against him. I would probably feel embarrassed that I had slept next to him while he was shirtless in the morning, but right now all I wanted was some comfort. Even if it was from the very someone that I feared the most.

My breathing quieted down, and began to slow down as I relaxed entirely. The memories from the nightmare seemed to entirely disappear as I fell asleep once again.

Against the last person I thought would ever be comforting me.

* * *

**A/N:**

_Well, I hoped you guys liked this chapter. For the first time, it had some fluff :3 Thanks for the reviews, they're much appreciated. Be sure to leave me some more and tell me what you guys think so far!_


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